Prishtina, 15 February 2013 – The Minister of Economic Development, Besim Beqaj, held today a press conference to inform the public on the findings of the Oversight Committee addressing citizen complaints to KEK in relation to electricity bills, whereby he dismissed any possibility for invoice inflation, and confirmed certain omissions in reading electricity meters.

Head of MED said that he had issued a decision last week to establish an Oversight Commission on treatment of citizen complaints to KEK, in order to address citizens’ concerns related to allegations on invoice inflation and excessive billing. The Commission comprised representatives of MED, MTI – Metrology Department, which performs meter tempering, Department of Consumer Protection, Energy Regulator’s Office, Kosovo Energy Corporation and NGO ‘Konsumatori’.

“The work of this group was to draw samples from all complaints submitted to KEK, and to observe whether or not all consumer complaints are addressed in accordance with KEK’s regulations and legal requirements”, said Beqaj.

Minister Beqaj said that the Commission made note of certain mistakes. Human mistakes pertained to meter-reading, omissions related to access to meter reading, replacement of meters and the impact meter replacement, as well as errors related to new connections.

“From the overall number of complaints registered, this group reviewed 31, in the sample collected by NGO Konsumatori. From these, eight complaints pertained to meter replacement and were remedied; 13 complains related to meter-reading, of which 7 were corrected and 6 were rejected as unfounded; 5 complaints related to lack of access for reading and all were remedied, while 2 related to new connections and were remedied,” said Beqaj.

According to him, this leads to the conclusion that mistakes were made, but mistakes were not aimed at overloading consumers with kilowatts they have not spent. They were, rather, human errors related to meter reading and replacement.

“Based on this report, I will ask KEK Board to undertake all necessary measures in order to address all errors related to this case and to remedy those errors accordingly, while making note of all actions undertaken in this direction,” said Beqaj.

Minister Beqaj said that the number of complaints submitted to KEK this year was compared with the number of complaints filed in 2011-2012, and results show a similar pattern of complaints for the reviewed periods.

Another issue raised by Minister Beqaj, and reiterated by ERO, is that the non-reading of meters may influence block-tariff change, hence he said that ERO and the Assembly should reconsider the matter and decide whether two or three block-tariffs would be used and what the level of tariff change should be, bearing in mind the significant costs involved.

MED Head ensured the citizens that in case of errors, the entire sum of erroneous reading will be reimbursed to them and that they should have no concerns to this end, while adding that appropriate disciplinary measures will be taken against all those that caused the said errors intentionally or due to negligent behavior.

Using this occasion, he once again called upon all consumers that may have doubts of over-invoicing to file their complaints while adding that all complaints will be addressed with full transparency, and that ensuring such transparency is the aim of the establishment of the said commission.

In relation to the punctuality of digital meters installed, the Minister reiterated that this is the responsibility of MTI’s Department of Metrology, which ensured all citizens that the said meters provide precise metering.