State government–owned Synergy has revealed it accepted more than $40 million worth of erroneous payments into 170,000 closed customer accounts over a period of 16 years.
State government–owned Synergy has revealed it accepted more than $40 million worth of erroneous payments into 170,000 closed customer accounts over a period of 16 years.
The utility revealed the payments were made to Synergy by business and residential customers through a range of methods including BPAY, direct debit, EFTPOS, and Australia Post since 2009.
The payments were made by customers into Synergy accounts that were closed, with half of the owed money totaling $100 or less and the largest in the "tens of thousands", according to chief executive Kurt Baker.
An apologetic Mr Baker fronted a brief media conference this morning, where he said a system error meant the utility had failed to detect when money was paid onto accounts that were closed.
The erroneous payments were rectified only when flagged by customers, and accepted otherwise.
"What has happened is that the customers have continued to make payments into closed accounts without receiving a bill," he said.
"Our systems and our processes should have identified that, but they haven't, so our systems have let us down.
"We've let our customers down, and we have to fix that as soon as we can."
Mr Baker said Synergy had hired new staff to help identify and contact impacted customers, and would pay the funds back over the course of the coming months.
Business News understands those impacted will have a choice between power credits and refunds.
The payment blunder marks a major escalation from the $2.29 million worth of overpayments identified earlier this year, which sparked a state government independent review into Synergy.
In that instance, Synergy had failed to cancel auto-debiting customer payments on closed accounts, with 2,845 people overcharged $2.29 million dating back to 2009.
Of those overcharged, 459 were using Centrepay - a voluntary bill paying service used by some Centrelink customers – and overseen by Services Australia.
The review of Centrepay led to the discovery of the broader issue, according to Mr Baker, who did not disclose when the government was made aware of the issue.
Once identified, Synergy self-reported the matter to the state's Economic Regulation Authority as required under its regulatory obligations.
