THE Opposition People’s National Party says it supports the contracting of auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) to examine the Jamaica Public Service’s (JPS’s) meter-replacement programme, but argues that the operations of the light and power company must be brought under parliamentary scrutiny.

The comments were made yesterday by Phillip Paulwell, who shadows the energy portfolio, after JPS announced that the audit began yesterday and is expected to be completed by early October at which time the findings will be made public.

He said while there was no doubt as to the ability and reputation of the auditing firm, breaking the monopolistic hold of JPS on the market was more the need at this time.

“I think PricewaterhouseCoopers is a company with good professional standing in Jamaica and they are reputable and I believe that they would do good work. However, I still believe the matter involves not only the issue of the meters and also the billing problems, but there are some fundamental issues that really ought to be dealt with by a committee of the Parliament of Jamaica,” Paulwell told the Observer.

“The fundamental issue really, that we have to deal with, is this matter of how we can introduce competition to the distribution side of the business and rather than the matter being played out in Court. I think the Government and the Opposition should really work towards dealing with this as quickly as possible as it is in the new energy policy that we approved last year,” he said.

“I have no difficulty with Pricewaterhouse, I think they will do a good job but I still believe there are more fundamental issues to be dealt with and that should be properly done by this Joint Select Committee of Parliament,” he added.

Paulwell said the parliamentary committee was the alternative the Opposition would accept to the establishment of the energy council, which it proposed recently.

“So in the absence of that, because really, if we were to have an energy council working properly, we could really achieve a lot of forward movement in the issues affecting the electricity sector; but in the absence of that I think we need to have this joint parliamentary committee,” he said.

He said the committee the Opposition was proposing would sit specifically to investigate the issue of how to lower electricity prices, examine all aspects of the JPS licence, its current billing practices, the new meters that are being installed and also the issue of competition.

“It would look at GCT on those customers who use more than 200 KWh but it would also look at the taxation that is paid by the JPS in the purchasing of fuel…,” he added.

He said the Opposition would next week table a motion in Parliament asking for the matter to be put before a Joint Select Committee.

Yesterday’s announcement by JPS followed widespread complaints from its customers about unusual increases in their bills after the installation of new meters by the company.

Last month, irate electricity consumers, including political interests and civil society activists, mounted protests against the company using social media Facebook and BlackBerry messenger to encourage Jamaicans to wear black as a part of a Black Friday protest against the exorbitant bills and poor customer service at the light and power company.

Amidst the mounting complaints, Energy Minister Clive Mullings had announced Government’s intention to establish a commission of enquiry into the company’s billing system. That plan was, however, put on hold.

Yesterday, the JPS said that as part of the scope of work, PWC will review the procedures used for installing and maintaining the new digital meters, to determine if they were in keeping with international best practices; review the meter certification and testing procedures; review and compare the trends in kilowatt-hour consumption for customers with replaced meters, for the period before and after the meter replacement.

It will also examine the rationale for adjustments, where adjustments were done after meters were replaced; select and investigate a sample of complaints relating to the new meters and review post-installation quality management and monitoring practices.