The City of Billings is hiring an independent contractor to audit its utility billing system

BILLINGS — After several months of complications with its utility billing software, the city of Billings has hired an independent firm to audit the city’s utility billing system.

A contractor from Minneapolis, Minnesota SL-serco Inc. I’ll get to work next week and check the apartment meters. The goal is to make sure your residential utility bills are accurate.

The company specializes in public utility consulting and has been offering this type of services for 60 years.

Billings City Administrator Chris Kukulski said the audit is expected to take about 90 days and will cost about $75,000, with funds coming from city finances.

Alina Hauter/MTN News

SL-serco Inc. will randomly select accounts to audit and check every part of the billing process.

“We believe that any user errors we find are in fact related to software miscalculations,” Kukulski said Saturday. “This will give us the opportunity to identify and correct the problem if there is an error in the system, and if not, we will conduct an independent analysis.”

The city’s contract with the company will be valid until January 31. The findings will be presented at a public meeting.

Kukulski said that if the audit shows that another entity was responsible for the errors, the city will seek remedial measures.