…but owed over $3B by delinquent customers

THE Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) has recorded an increase in its revenue for the first half of the year but the company is still owed over $3 billion which it hopes to recover by taking delinquent customers to court.

At the end of June 2018 the company had recorded over $2 billion in revenue which reflects an increase of over $200 million when compared to the corresponding period last year, said Executive Director of Commercial Services and Customer relations, Marlon Daniels during a press conference at GWI on Friday.

According to Daniels, the company has been recording consistent increases in revenue since 2016. “This is owed to the fact that the company was able to split itself into zones so we can liaise with customers and remind them that they have to pay on time… even customers on contracts are reminded,” he said.

Managing Director of GWI, Dr. Richard Van-West Charles elaborated more on the disaggregation of customers into zones, noting that they are able to easily identify the customers who pay within the required timeframe and the delinquent consumers.
The company’s Corporate Secretary, Nigel Niles said, they have started to issue demand letters to customers who owe over $100,000.

“If they do not respond to us in a positive manner we file action against them… we started the process in Berbice and recently and three judgments were handed down against customers who owe in excess of $100,000,” said the corporate secretary. GWI has been able to prepare a list of over 1000 customers who owe in excess of the targeted figure. The list comprises persons from Berbice, the East Coast of Demerara, Georgetown, Anna Regina and the West Coast of Demerara. Just about 200 of the 1000 persons are from Georgetown. Niles said those persons will be served with notices soon.

CREDIT INFO
In an earlier presentation, Dr. Van-West Charles said the company has started to share information with Credit Info so that lending institutions would know who bad debtors are.
“Once you go to the bank or courts to have access to credit your name will come up as a bad customer once you owe a certain amount to GWI,” he said. The system has been working for the company but, the managing director said he prefers the “soft approach” of encouraging customers to pay on a timely basis.

Dr. Van-West Charles said the more harsh method would be to use new devices to plug a customer’s water supply until the company receives the necessary payments. In addition, he explained that any customer who owes the company for over three years will be removed from the system and would have to apply for a new service which would not be easy. As was said in the past, GWI will continue to monitor customers by ensuring that all customers, particularly commercial users, are metered.