BULGARIA’S OMBUDSMAN MAYA MANOLOVA ADVISED CITIZENS LEFT WITHOUT HEATING TO FILE COMPLAINTS

For a fourth consecutive day, many residential areas in Sofia have been left without district heating and hot water because of a major breakdown.

BNT reporter Tsvetelina Katanska was on the site of the breakdown where there were vehicles of Sofia district Heating company, but no workers despite that the company claimed they were working non-stop to repair the problem. The company has not yet given any specific information about the duration of the cut-off. According to information of BNT viewers, the district heating and hot water supply has not been restored in the residential areas of Mladost, Druzhba, Students’ city, Dianabad, Slatina and Geo Milev. Late on 7th of February, another breakdown left Lyulin 3, 4, 5 and 6 micro regions without heating and hot water.

Bulgaria’s Ombudsman Maya Manolova advised citizens who were partially or completely left without heating and hot water because of the breakdown to submit complaints to the district heating company claiming indemnities. The complaints will have to explicitly require the company to read the metering devices in the substations and record the information stored in the memory of the devices, the office of the ombudsperson advised. This should be done by 1st of March at the latest, because on that date the information stored in the devices is reset.

After receiving the complaint, the district heating company is obliged to carry out a check and draft a protocol in the presence of the person who lodged the complaint.

The ombudsman also sent a letter to the caretaker minister of energy Nikolai Pavlov demanding an urgent check into the breakdown.

She insisted that the energy ministry fulfill its duties of control over the company under the Law on Energy, protect the citizens and the guilty parties bear responsibility.

Maya Manolova also recommended a revision of the implementation of the investment programme of the district heating company, because given the speed with which the monopolist was carrying out the repair works, it would take 1,000 years to complete it. She stressed that in 2016, only 1,4 km from a total of 1,000 km of pipelines were renovated.

In the letter to the energy minister, the Ombudsman asked for urgent changes to the Ordinance on Heat Supply, so that heating bills to correspond to the actual service used.