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Water Firm Faces Multi-Million Fine
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/...292765,00.html
Southern Water is facing a fine of up to £20.3m over failures to its customers and to Ofwat, the organisation that regulates the water industry.
The fine is for deliberately misreporting customer service performance information before October 2005, says Ofwat.
And failed systems meant customers received a poor service, it said, adding that customers missed out on the payments they were entitled to because of the service failures.
"Southern Water deliberately misreported its customer service performance to Ofwat and systematically manipulated information to conceal the company's true performance over an extended period of time," said CEO Regina Finn.
"The company benefited directly from this misreporting at the last two price reviews, meaning Southern was able to increase its prices by more than it should have done.
"Customers received higher than necessary bills because of the company's deception.
"Southern Water's shareholders will bear the entire cost of this fine. It will not be passed on to its customers.
"The magnitude of this fine reflects the magnitude of the offence," said Ofwat's Regina Finn.
She blamed the water company for "deliberately misleading the regulator" and said the the board of directors should have picked up the deception.
Southern Water, which provides water and waste-water services in Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, said it "fully acknowledges" Ofwat's response.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/...292765,00.html
Southern Water is facing a fine of up to £20.3m over failures to its customers and to Ofwat, the organisation that regulates the water industry.
The fine is for deliberately misreporting customer service performance information before October 2005, says Ofwat.
And failed systems meant customers received a poor service, it said, adding that customers missed out on the payments they were entitled to because of the service failures.
"Southern Water deliberately misreported its customer service performance to Ofwat and systematically manipulated information to conceal the company's true performance over an extended period of time," said CEO Regina Finn.
"The company benefited directly from this misreporting at the last two price reviews, meaning Southern was able to increase its prices by more than it should have done.
"Customers received higher than necessary bills because of the company's deception.
"Southern Water's shareholders will bear the entire cost of this fine. It will not be passed on to its customers.
"The magnitude of this fine reflects the magnitude of the offence," said Ofwat's Regina Finn.
She blamed the water company for "deliberately misleading the regulator" and said the the board of directors should have picked up the deception.
Southern Water, which provides water and waste-water services in Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, said it "fully acknowledges" Ofwat's response.
