Late-night report: file a case, return the money, and be dismissed!

The reporter learned at the press conference on the Chongqing gas investigation held on the evening of April 19 that after the investigation of the Chongqing Municipal Joint Investigation Team, it was confirmed that Chongqing Gas Group and other gas companies had problems such as overcharging and overcharging gas fees reported by some citizens.

Reporter He Penglei Photo The investigation team verified the situation one by one through on-site verification, test testing, data comparison, expert analysis and judgment, and empirical evidence of typical cases, and has now found that Chongqing Gas Group and other gas enterprises have problems such as overcharging and overcharging gas fees reported by some citizens. The specific problems are as follows: First, there are problems of miscopying and illegal evaluation. For example, the investigation found that from January to April 2024, the Shapingba Branch of Chongqing Gas Group had 1,085 cases of increased gas consumption due to manual entry errors, involving 190,500 m³ of gas, and 106 cases of increased gas consumption, involving 11,600 m³, due to unsuccessful household meter reading, resulting in 234 cumulative meter readings at higher tiered prices, involving 279,100 m³. Second, there is the problem of confusion in the gas billing cycle. For example, the investigation found that a user in Longshan Street, Yubei District, had a very long meter reading cycle, with no meter reading records for 7 months, 9 months, and the longest 13 months, resulting in the user paying a one-time gas bill for one year in October 2023. For another example, the gas branch has a non-uniform billing cycle for users in the same community, and the time interval is irregular, with a minimum billing cycle of 7 days and a maximum billing cycle of 83 days. In another example, Chongqing Gas Group requires the completion of meter reading for all residential customers one month before the annual price adjustment, but in the implementation process, there are problems such as the usual estimation and centralized liquidation before the price adjustment, which leads to a sharp increase in gas bills. Third, there is the problem that the price policy is not implemented in place. For example, the investigation found that on April 15, 2024, a public rental housing tenant in Shapingba had no gas meter reading records for 3 years and 3 months, and the gas consumption recorded by the parties at one time meter reading at check-out reached 943m³, and Chongqing Gas Group calculated the charges according to a billing cycle, overcharging 237.55 yuan for gas, which has been filed for investigation. Fourth, the organization of meter change work is disorderly. The billing and collection system of gas enterprises is backward in technology and unstable in operation, resulting in data disorder. For example, a community in Jiangbei will start replacing smart meters in July and August 2023, but the staff of Chongqing Gas Group will only hand over the user information to the gas company for entry into the system after replacing a batch of meters. Fifth, there is a serious shortage of work force. For example, the number of customers managed by the gas branch is 525,000, of which 141,000 need to read the meter at home, and only 18 meter readers are allocated, with an average of 7,800 households per person, resulting in problems such as perfunctory meter reading by the staff. Sixth, the internal supervision and management of some gas enterprises is not in place. Failure to perform business review, supervision and management duties in accordance with regulations, failure to find problems in a timely manner such as fluctuations in the meter reading cycle, inadequate meter reading, abnormal data, etc., and failure to correct deviations and corrections. In response to the above problems, the gas company will be instructed to refund the full amount of the gas fee that has been investigated and confirmed to be overcharged. For the clues of the investigation found that the enterprise violated laws and regulations, the investigation team handed over to the relevant departments to speed up the disposal in accordance with the law, and 14 cases have been filed for investigation, and the violations of laws and regulations confirmed by the investigation and the relevant responsible persons will be seriously held accountable. The investigation team has notified the superior institutions of Chongqing Gas Group and other gas companies. It is reported that the superior organization of Chongqing Gas Group has decided to remove Che Dechen Chongqing Gas Group from the post of Party Secretary and General Manager, and requested the general meeting of shareholders to remove him from the position of chairman, and at the same time sent a working group to Chongqing Gas Group to carry out a thorough investigation and rectification of related problems. Judging from the current investigation and verification, no problems have been found such as gas meter measurement and quality, gas quality, and changing gas meter measurement through remote control. In the next step, Chongqing will draw inferences from one case to another in view of the problems found in this investigation, such as the lack of industry management and regulatory law enforcement, and instruct relevant departments to increase supervision and law enforcement, urge gas companies to improve service quality and management level, continue to find out the problems existing in the work, continue to properly handle the complaints and reports of the masses, protect the interests of the masses, and ensure the satisfaction of the masses.