Managers at the government utility bills handling company were given performance bonuses for 2010 even though the “challenging year” was characterised by consumer complaints, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech confirmed yesterday.
“There was an evaluation process and each individual was given the bonus deemed due to him,” he said.
ARMS Ltd started issuing water and electricity bills on January 1 last year and came under heavy fire from consumers who complained of bills that were wrongly-issued or not issued at all. There had been interminable queues at the Luqa head office, telephone or e-mail queries that went unanswered and some received threatening legal letters from a non-existent legal office.
Mr Fenech said the problems were not due to shortcomings by management. The problem was that in a matter of a few months there was changeover to a new billing system, a revision of the tariffs and the granting of energy benefits.
“The reality was we did not have enough resources but it was a case of all hands on deck,” he said, adding the resources had now been increased.
Mr Fenech was speaking during a visit to the ARMS offices for the launch of a new scheme. Customers will benefit from a two per cent discount on their bill if they opt to pay through direct debit.
ARMS chief executive officer Wilfred Borg said a new internet portal should be up and running by the end of the month. It will allow customers to access billing information from home and make payments online.
Mr Fenech said that, while last year was “a challenging” one, the situation had improved a lot since then as the maximum waiting time to pay a bill had decreased to 35 from 90 minutes. Until the end of last year, 30,000 of the 250,000 account holders were not receiving their bills every two months as intended. This had dropped to 15,000 by February and was to be cut again by half by the end of April. ARMS issued about 25,000 bills a week.
The number of complaints had dropped by 25 per cent since summer and the majority of telephone calls were being tackled within four minutes. Most e-mails, 75 per cent, were replied to within two days and the rest were handled within five days.
About 57,000 smart metres had been installed and refurbishing works to move the offices to Gattard house, in Blata l-Bajda, were about to start, Mr Fenech said.