HCMC – Truong Quang Dinh, director of Quy Chau Power Unit in Nghe An Province’s Quy Chau District, has been suspended from work for 15 days over a case in which a local household was overbilled by over VND15 million due to the inaccurate recording of power consumption.
Nghe An Power Company issued the decision to suspend him on June 24.
Aside from Dinh, Dang Minh Duc, a sales employee at Quy Chau Power Unit, is also facing a 15-day suspension as he imported the power consumption data and issued the bill.
As for the two collectors who incorrectly read the power usage, Bui Dang Phuc will have his salary for June reduced as punishment, while his colleague was reprimanded. Two of them still go to work as usual, waiting for disciplinary decisions from Nghe An Power Company.
Prior to this, Nguyen Thi Thanh residing in Que Phong District received an electricity bill for June worth more than VND16 million, much higher than the average amount received in the previous months at some VND1 million.
Quy Chau Power Unit rechecked her household’s usage and concluded that the bill was calculated inaccurately, and it should have instead been VND501,000.
Quy Chau Power Unit, which was reportedly established following a merger between Quy Chau and Que Phong power units, explained that Phuc and his colleague on June 19 read Thanh’s power meter and recorded the usage at 5,093kWh.
Due to a 30% increase compared to the previous months, her household’s usage was rechecked in line with prevailing regulations.
On the following day, two other collectors found that she had consumed only 253kWh and has to pay VND501,000. However, the unit’s staff still imported the figure of 5,093kWh and issued the bill.
Quy Chau Power Unit apologized to Thanh for the error.
It is a serious mistake and affects customers, noted Banh Hong Hien, director of Nghe An Power Company.
The firm has asked Quy Chau Unit to report over the issue and has ordered its unit to review cases of abnormally high electricity bills over the past months, Hien said.
