Okaloosa seeks 60% contingency deal to recover unbilled utility revenue

Okaloosa seeks 60% contingency deal to recover unbilled utility revenueOkaloosa County Water & Sewer has put forward a performance-based billing audit contract with Water Revenue Resources Ltd. Co. The proposed arrangement targets billing errors across the utility's customer base and ties the consultant's fee directly to additional revenue collected.

Water Revenue Resources proposed a 60% share of actual collected revenue increases resulting from verified billing corrections, payable for 36 months.

The contractor proposed roughly 45 days for billing-data review and system analysis, followed by an estimated 90 days of field assessment and account verification.

The audit would cover approximately 34,000 accounts, according to the contractor's proposal.

The proposed contract anticipates a one-year investigation period followed by three years of recovery payments.

Okaloosa County Water & Sewer is seeking board approval for a contingency-based audit intended to uncover billing errors and improve the equity of customer charges across its water and wastewater customer base. The proposed contract with Water Revenue Resources Ltd. Co. would pay the consultant 60% of actual additional revenue collected from verified corrections for 36 months. The company would not be paid a fixed audit fee under the pricing proposed in its response to the county's request for proposals. County staff said long-running billing systems can accumulate errors that are difficult to detect. The planned review is intended both to identify revenue that is owed but has not been collected and to ensure that customers are billed fairly and equitably. The procurement drew two responses, with Water Revenue Resources determined by Purchasing and the selection committee to have submitted a responsive and responsible proposal. The county issued its intent to award on 14 August 2026. Water Revenue Resources said it would analyse one to two years of billing records, including account location, meter size, rate code and volume. The firm proposed using screening algorithms and an independent rate model to identify anomalous accounts, then carrying out field investigations of questionable and high-volume accounts. Its scope includes review of metering configurations, potential unmetered uses, bypass lines, deduct and auxiliary meters, and under-reporting or malfunctioning registers. The consultant estimated that its initial data review and billing-system analysis would take about 45 days, with a further 90 days expected for field assessment and verification. Its proposal refers to approximately 34,000 utility accounts. Under the proposed agreement, the county would establish a historical billing baseline for each corrected account. Subsequent collections above that baseline would be used to calculate the consultant's fee. The contract documentation describes a one-year investigation period and three years of payback activity. The board's 6 October agenda requested approval of the contract. The agenda materials do not provide a final vote outcome.