A bug in a new computer system was contributing to customer care problems related to water and electricity bills, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said yesterday.
Speaking at the inauguration of Enemalta Corporations’s new district office in Mosta, Mr Fenech said the new system used to handle bills was found to have a bug and, as a result, not all data inputted appeared on the monitor.
The installation of new systems like the smart meters and the new utility bills also contributed to cause a backlog of customer care problems, he said.
The minister’s admission comes after ARMS Ltd, the agency set up at the beginning of the year to handle utility bills, came under fire from the public for its inefficiency, which led to long queues outside the Water Services Corporation headquarters in Luqa, where it is housed.
The agency saw an increase of almost 25 per cent over normal levels of clients visiting its customer care centre since the energy benefit allowance was distributed by the government over a month ago, eliciting bitter complaints from the customers.
A spokesman for ARMS said last month the long queues were not related to the new billing system introduced but to a number of mistakes where data was not being regularly updated by consumers.
The minister, however, admitted yesterday there had been a technical hitch with the new software that came with the setting up of the agency at the beginning of the year.
He announced that the customer care services of ARMS Ltd should move from Luqa to Gattard House in Blata l-Bajda by the end of the year. The company would also extend district offices in other places, the ministry said.
The new district office in Mosta is meant to serve as an “interface with the consumers for problems that may arise”. The €120,000 building will serve as a dispatching centre for personnel in Mosta, Naxxar, San Pawl tat-Tarġa and the environs.
The corporation was making substantial investments, with a new distribution centre in Kappara set to open up soon, apart from new cables being installed in tunnels and the introduction of the Scada system that would allow Enemalta to control sub-stations through continuous monitoring of traditionally-unmanned distribution centres, Mr Fenech said.