Xinhua News Agency, Chongqing, April 19th (Reporter Zhou Kai) On the evening of 19th, the Information Office of Chongqing Municipal Government held a press conference to inform the investigation of the joint investigation team stationed in gas enterprises, and to find out the problems of overcharging reflected by some citizens in gas enterprises such as Chongqing Gas Group.
At the press conference, Quan Wei, Deputy Secretary-General of Chongqing Municipal Government, introduced that the joint investigation team set up four special inspection teams to be stationed in Chongqing Gas Group and other gas enterprises, and eight on-site inspection teams conducted household surveys, with a total of 978 law enforcement personnel dispatched, professional accounting firms introduced for third-party audits, and 108 representatives of the Municipal People’s Congress, CPPCC members, consumer representatives and news media reporters were invited to participate in the whole process. Relevant enterprises accepted a total of 26,000 complaints.
The joint investigation team has now found out that there are six problems in gas enterprises such as Chongqing Gas Group, such as overcharging gas charges, which are reflected by some citizens: First, there are problems of misreading and illegal estimation. For example, the investigation found that from January to April in 2024, Shapingba Branch of Chongqing Gas Group produced 1,085 gas consumption increases due to manual input errors, involving 190,500 cubic meters, and 106 gas consumption increases due to non-occupancy estimation errors, involving 11,600 cubic meters. Long-term unsuccessful meter reading at home caused 234 accumulated meter readings to be charged at a higher step price, involving 279,100 cubic meters.
Second, there is the problem of chaotic gas billing cycle. For example, Chongqing Gas Group requires all residents to complete meter reading one month before the annual price adjustment, but in the process of implementation, there are problems such as usual estimation and centralized liquidation before the price adjustment, which leads to a sharp rise in gas costs.
Third, there is the problem that the implementation of price policy is not in place. For example, according to the investigation, on April 15th, 2024, a tenant of a public rental house in Shapingba had no gas meter reading record for three years and three months, and the gas consumption recorded by the parties at one time reached 943 cubic meters when they checked out. Chongqing Gas Group calculated the charges by ladder pricing according to a billing cycle, and the gas fee was overcharged by 237.5 yuan. This situation has been investigated.
Fourth, the organization of table change is out of order. The charging and collecting system of gas enterprises is backward in technology and unstable in operation, resulting in data disorder. For example, in July and August of 2023, a residential area in Jiangbei began to replace smart meters, but the staff of Chongqing Gas Group only handed over the user information to the gas company’s input system after changing a batch of meters, and there was a time difference between them, resulting in a larger gas consumption than usual and a higher cost than usual.
Fifth, there is a serious shortage of work strength. Some gas companies do not manage meter readers in place. For example, a branch company manages 525,000 customers, among which 141,000 need to read meters at home, and only 18 meter readers are allocated, which leads to problems such as perfunctory meter reading by staff.
Sixth, the internal supervision and management of some gas enterprises are not in place. Failing to perform business review, supervision and management duties in accordance with the regulations, failing to find problems such as fluctuation of meter reading cycle, inadequate meter reading, abnormal data, etc., and failing to rectify and correct them in place.
In view of the above problems, the gas companies will be instructed to make a full refund for the gas charges that have been investigated and confirmed to be overcharged. For the clues that the investigation found that the enterprise violated laws and regulations, the investigation team handed over to the relevant departments to speed up the handling according to law. At present, 14 cases have been investigated and will be seriously held accountable.
The investigation team has informed the higher authorities of Chongqing Gas Group and other gas companies about the investigation. It is reported that the superior organization of Chongqing Gas Group has decided to remove Che Dechen from the post of Party Secretary and General Manager of Chongqing Gas Group, and requested the shareholders’ meeting to remove him from the post of chairman. At the same time, a working group was sent to Chongqing Gas Group to carry out a thorough investigation and rectification of related issues. From the current investigation and verification, no problems such as gas meter measurement and quality, gas quality, and changing gas meter measurement through remote control have been found.
