ORLEANS PARISH, La. — The Office of Inspector General (OIG) has uncovered significant overbilling issues within the Sewerage & Water Board's (S&WB) billing process, affecting numerous residents. The investigation revealed that S&WB has been inaccurately recording the Sewer Volume Charge on about 5,300 customer bills.
The OIG's probe was triggered by an April 2024 complaint from a customer who discovered their Sewer Volume Charge was being calculated at 100% of their metered water consumption, instead of the correct 85% rate. S&WB's policy states that residential and public housing class volume charges should be based on 85% of metered consumption to account for water used for non-sewer purposes, such as lawn watering.
Upon reviewing a sample of 93 bills from March 2024, the OIG found that three accounts (3.2%) were overbilled at the 100% rate, resulting in a total overcharge of $61. Extrapolating this error rate to all 130,189 residential accounts billed in March 2024, the OIG estimates that S&WB may have overbilled customers by $79,139 for that month, potentially leading to an overcharge of $949,663 over a year.
S&WB has acknowledged the billing errors and attributed them to a discrepancy in their billing system. The board is in the process of crediting the affected accounts and is working with their billing software vendor to resolve the issue.
“As soon as a customer brought this issue to our attention, we reached out to our software vendor who reviewed all 140,000 accounts and confirmed this was a system error that impacted a specific group of customers,” said SWBNO Executive Director Ghassan Korban. “We are looking into all our preexisting billing systems to ensure our smart meter rollout is as seamless as possible."
To ensure accurate billing, the OIG recommends that S&WB conduct regular internal audits, promptly identify and correct the cause of the miscalculations, determine the correct billing amounts for affected customers, and credit those accounts accordingly.
S&WB customers are advised to review their recent bills for accuracy and report any discrepancies. According to the S&WB website, customers can initiate a bill complaint if they suspect an incorrect charge and, if necessary, request a hearing before an Administrative Hearing Officer. Unsatisfied customers can appeal to the New Orleans City Council.
