Utilities official: IEC attack is pathetic

The Israel Electric Corporation yesterday petitioned the High Court of Justice to order the Utilities Authority (Electricity ) and the minister of national infrastructure to publish clear, transparent procedures, including on how power rates should be set.

"The IEC's petition to the High Court of Justice is just a tactical move to deflect fire," rebutted a top official of the Utilities Authority (Electricity ) in court yesterday. Instead of tackling its own shortcomings, the company is deflecting the fire with a three-pronged attack: through politics, through the press and now through the courts as well, he said.

The IEC is heavily in debt and strapped for cash (see report on page 8 about an impending private placement of bonds ). While the company would like to raise its rates, it can't just do so: as a monopoly and government company it needs the permission of the Utilities Authority.

Such permission has not been forthcoming.

But, said the official: "Throwing mud at the Utilities Authority is pathetic. The public mustn't buy this ... Is the company's sorry state due solely to the rates? Not at all."

On Tuesday, IEC director-general Amos Lasker said the company would do everything in its power to raise the rates it may charge saying they would "amend the grave distortions."

In response, the Utilities Authority officials said that what really irks them is precisely that, the rates, not "procedures".

"Let them stand up and say where the authority has gone wrong," he said. "They can't, so they grouse about fines and covering the cost of a generator bought ten years ago. It's no great trick to rouse politicians. But if they really want a change in rates, let them present a serious case."

Asked why the company had to motion the court in order to obtain minutes of the authority's discussions on its own rates, the official said, "They forgot to say that they received reasonable explanations to all their questions."

The Utilities Authority is completely transparent, he added.

In July, the World Bank wrote a paper suggesting that the IEC needed to raise its rates by 16%, lest it risk defaulting on its debt. Without the increase, the company would have difficulty meeting present liabilities, it said.

At the end of the first quarter, the IEC's debt totaled NIS 61.7 billion.