Press Release

PUC Releases Focused Management and Operations Audit Report for National Fuel Gas

Published on 4/19/2018

Filed under: Gas

HARRISBURG – The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) today voted to release a Focused Management and Operations Audit report of National Fuel Gas Distribution Corporation (National Fuel Gas).

The Commission voted 5-0 to make the Audit Report and National Fuel Gas’ Implementation Plan public.

Focused Management and Operations Audits, performed by the PUC’s Bureau of Audits, analyze and evaluate management performance in various functional areas.

The audit report makes nine recommendations to National Fuel Gas for improvement, as follows: 

• Expand the Senior Management Metric Dashboard Report to include performance metrics specific to NFGDC-PA operations and PAPUC regulatory metrics.
• Monitor the nomination process to ensure diverse business perspectives are included in the Board’s membership to comply with Corporate Governance guidelines.
• Formally document committee membership and adopt best practices for rotation of the Board members on committees.
• Update the Audit Services Department Manual to specifically include a procedure stating that all Audit Services Department employees, including the Chief Auditor, have unrestricted access to the external audit firm.
• Reduce gross write-off levels to more closely align with the panel average of peer gas distribution utilities in Pennsylvania.
• Reduce billing lag by creating a process to issue atypical meter reads separately from the normal billing cycle reads.
• Measure employee engagement on a routine basis to trend employee satisfaction and identify areas of improvement.
• Reduce preventable OSHA recordable incidents to achieve at least industry performance levels and eliminate incidents labeled as “Hazard not Identified”.
• Perform a lease versus buy analysis every three to five years to determine the most cost-effective vehicle acquisition method. 

National Fuel Gas has accepted all nine recommendations. It has indicated it will implement the majority of the recommendations by December 2019.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission balances the needs of consumers and utilities; ensures safe and reliable utility service at reasonable rates; protects the public interest; educates consumers to make independent and informed utility choices; furthers economic development; and fosters new technologies and competitive markets in an environmentally sound manner.

Visit the PUC’s website at www.puc.pa.gov for recent news releases and video of select proceedings. You can also follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube. Search for the “Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission” or “PA PUC” on your favorite social media channel for updates on utility issues and other helpful consumer information.

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 Docket No.: D-2017-2584893

Contact:

• Nils Hagen-Frederiksen
  Press Secretary
  717-418-2701
  nhagen-fre@pa.gov