Held to Account: But wait, there's more...

Friends, the bar has been raised on the international Bureaucracy-Gone-Mad-o-Metre. I present to you, as the new champion of 'red tape strangling sanity', a mind boggling example of pointless, self-important lunacy. If you've lived in Dubai longer than 4 weeks, this situation or one similar has probably happened to you already, but take a deep breath and read on:

You will recall the story of our man "S" who's moved house and simply wanted the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) to disconnect the power and water from his previous house and reconnect the services at the new one. Not too much to ask you would have thought. As you know from the first story, our man went to the DEWA office to settle the final bill and as part of the new connection procedure, confirmed that he wanted his DEWA bills to be sent to him by email as they have been for the past 5 years. At this point, he was told to go away and not come back until he could produce a letter of authority from his employer stating that the company had no objection to "S" receiving DEWA bills electronically. Despite his protests, "You've been sending the bills to me by email for the past 5 years...", the DEWA dude would not be moved.

Once "S" calmed down he pondered how to get this letter done, and that's when the penny dropped. As he's the holder of the Power of Attorney for his company and is the only company signatory in the UAE, "S" has to write a Letter of No Objection from himself, The Boss, saying that he has no objection to himself, The Employee, being sent his power bills by email. Maybe something along the lines of:

I confirm that I, "S", have no objection to me "S", receiving my power bills by email the same way you've sent them to me for the last 5 years....Signed, "S"

then he has to sign the letter, put the company stamp on it and present it at the DEWA office together with his ID and probably a copy of the PoA.

And try to keep a straight face.

Held to account

First to explain, "DEWA" stands for Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, its Dubai's power board and water supply board rolled into one. So, here's the scenario:

• "S" is a long time DEWA account holder who has, up to the present time, received DEWA bills electronically to his email account.
• He moves house and wants to settle the final DEWA account for the previous house and open an account for the new house.
• Just as an aside, "S" has moved round the corner to a house that's the same size and quality as his previous home but the rent is AED70,000 p.a. cheaper, but that's another story........
• He goes into DEWA to pay the final bill and is told, firstly, to go away and write a letter formally requesting discontinuance of the power and water supply at the old address - heaven forfend that people could just walk into the DEWA office and disconnect their power on the spot. Secondly, as he is now at a new address, DEWA requires "an authorization Letter from your Company & ID Copy" before he'll be allowed to receive bills electronically. This despite DEWA having made the bills available in electronic form every month since the e-service started.

Its just a method of distributing bills for heaven's sake. What does a letter from the employer achieve? Would someone need a letter from their employer to receive the same DEWA bills by regular post? How about a letter from Empost guaranteeing they'll deliver the bills on time to the correct address?

If its a new policy, then why didn't DEWA ask for such a letter when the electronic service started x number of years ago? If the account is in the individual's name, what has the employer got to do with it? No doubt they are thinking to protect themselves from people "skipping" but the employer won't pay any outstanding bill in such cases.

Satwa: الى اللقاء (See you later)

Sadly, we’ve joined the exodus from Satwa and, after we moved out, as arranged, the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (“DEWA”) cut off the water and electricity supply to the Satwa villa on 17th May. DEWA produced the final bill on 20th May. Now DEWA are refusing to refund the original deposit we paid as they're demanding that we pay for water and electricity at the Satwa villa from the date they disconnected the power and water, 17th May, to the date the bill was produced, 20th May. Why? According to DEWA their policy is that the amount to be paid by the consumer is calculated on the date DEWA produces the final bill not the date the service actually ceased. So if, for example, a villa in Satwa is demolished before DEWA produces a final bill for that property, and due to the number of Satwa disconnections it takes them let's say, 6 weeks, to produce a final bill, is the consumer required to pay for water and power (non)supply to the pile of rubble for that 6 week period? I'm sure we'll find out the answer when the demolitions really get under way over the next few months.