It was established last year to collect outstanding debts on behalf of Enemalta and WSC; but the corporations’ new billing company, Automated Revenue Management Services Ltd, has developed a software fault affecting its calculations for the revised utility bills.
The government’s new billing company for the electricity and water corporations has run into teething troubles: technical faults have rendered an incorrect calculation of the Enemalta and Water Services Corporation bills.
Formed just a year ago, ARMS Ltd (Automated Revenue Management Services) is a company owned by Enemalta and the WSC to handle meter reading and billing, and manage both entities’ customer care service in the form of a one-stop shop.
But the company, which was expected to start issuing the first bills of 2010, is still looking for a chief executive officer.
Its main technological partner in the billing project is IBM, with which Enemalta and WSC teamed up to change their IT database system in January 2009.
Infrastructure minister Austin Gatt said the new system – SAP IT Platform – can analyse data as it is fed through the energy grid, enabling the government to trace trends, peak times and allows the delivery of utility services with higher efficiency to the public.
Enemalta launched a five-year nationwide smart meter project early last year, with the first meters being installed in May 2009. According to the government’s own roadmap, after a pilot project of 5,000 smart meters, in 2010 the rollout should reach of 100,000 installations. So far 9,000 smart meters have been installed in Senglea, Safi and other random locations as a pilot project.
ARMS Ltd is expected to send the new household bills in April, with a two-page layout listing consumption information on the front and a detailed breakdown on the second page.
Maltatoday sent questions to IT Minister Austin Gatt but no answers were forthcoming by the time of going to print.
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