Page 2419 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 2 August 2017
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(h) that Icon Water’s current corporate and customer services agreements represent contracts with a third party which contain significant commercial-in-confidence elements, and that their full release may impact on the legitimate commercial activities of that third party;
(i) that the shareholders will use their limited powers of direction to request that the company’s board and CEO review these agreements to determine what elements can be released to the public without compromising their commercial confidentiality; and
(j) the shareholders will notify Icon Water’s board and CEO about the ACT Government’s expectations regarding contestability and value for money ahead of the expiry of the current contract in 2023, and request the board and CEO take appropriate steps to address these expectations ahead of entering into new service agreements.”.
Icon Water is a territory-owned corporation and has a board and a management executive that are appointed to run the company on a commercial basis. The Territory-owned Corporations Act specifically states that such companies should operate at least as efficiently as any comparable business and maximise sustainable financial returns to the territory.
Icon Water currently has agreements in place with ActewAGL for the provision of both customer and corporate services. Services delivered under the customer services and community support agreement include meter reading, consumer/customer billing, customer account management and support. Services delivered under the corporate services agreement include the operation of a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week, 365-day-a-year emergency contact centre, an ICT management contract, including hardware, software and support, human services and payroll management and a range of tax, regulatory and procurement services. These agreements were first initiated under the Carnell Liberal government as part of the privatisation of the then ACTEW Corporation in the year 2000. They represented at that time a continuation of the functions and corporate services then provided by the company.
I am advised that there have been some negotiated variations to the agreements to reflect changing circumstances since the Carnell government established these arrangements in the year 2000. The agreements have continuously reflected the particular service requirements that are unique to the utilities sector and an intention to ensure the ongoing provision of cost-effective and high quality services for ACT consumers of these essential utility services.
,The Leader of the Opposition has given some commentary that Icon Water perhaps should have procured some or all of these functions from Shared Services within the ACT government. This is obviously not a feasible arrangement for Icon Water, firstly because they are not an ACT government directorate but, perhaps more importantly, Shared Services does not provide the wide range of services that are currently procured by Icon Water through that agreement, particularly—and I note particularly—the customer facing services. We do not have a billing and meter reading function within Shared Services. These are specialised arrangements that are not currently provided.
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