(1) The licensee shall furnish in a report, submitted quarterly to the Commission and the Ombudsman and a consolidated annual report for each financial year to the Commission, the following information (separately for guaranteed and overall standards of performance) as to the standards of performance:-
(a) the levels of performance achieved by the licensee with reference to those specified in the Schedule;
(b) the number of cases in which compensation was awarded and the aggregate amount of the compensation paid by the licensee as determined by the Commission or the person authorised by the Commission under section 97 of the Act or awarded by any other court or tribunal, constituted under any law for the time being in force, along with the reasons for non-compliance of the guaranteed standards of performance;
(c) the number of claims preferred by the consumers against the licensee for failure to meet the guaranteed standards of performance and the action taken by the licensee including the reasons as to the delay in payment or non-payment of compensation for such claims.
(2) The Commission shall, at least once in every year, arrange for the publication, in such form and manner as it considers appropriate, of such information furnished by the licensees under these regulations.
(3) In the consolidated annual report, the licensee shall report on the measures taken by the licensee to improve performance areas, assessment of the targets to be imposed for the ensuing year, indicating performance of each circle and ranking of circles with respect to each performance indicator mentioned under sub-regulation (3) of regulation 9 and in the Schedule.
(4) The Ombudsman shall prepare a report on half yearly basis reflecting the opinion of the Ombudsman on the licensee’s compliance of the standards of performance during the preceding six months.
(5) The report under sub-regulation (4) shall be forwarded to the Commission and the State Government within 45 days after the end of the relevant period of six months.
11. Compliance Auditing - (1) In order to ensure proper and due enforcement of the standards of performance, the Commission shall monitor the compliance thereof and may, on being satisfied that the licensee has failed to maintain and discharge its obligations in relation to the standards of performance under these regulations or has failed to furnish information in time or has furnished inadequate or incorrect information under subregulation (1) of regulation 10, by order in writing, direct its Secretary or officers, not 8 Compendium of HPERC Regulations, March 2020 below the rank of a Gazetted Officer, or the consultant or any other person specified in the order or an independent agency hired for the purpose of auditing as per the provisions of regulation 12, to investigate and report to the Commission.
(2) If the report under sub-regulation (1), or information obtained under regulation 10 or any part thereof, is proposed to be relied upon by the Commission in forming its opinion and satisfaction, the licensee shall be given a reasonable opportunity for filing objections and making submissions on the report or the information as the case may be.
(3) The Commission may direct that the expenditure incurred in conducting the investigations mentioned in sub-regulation (1) shall be borne by the licensee.
(4) The report under this regulation shall address the following specific matters:-
(a) adherence to procedures and formats as per regulations;
(b) assessing staff engaged in call centers/complaint handling centers/ customer care centers for their understanding of complaint handling procedures, quality parameters, and training adequacy for their task;
(c) method of data collection and management procedures; and
(d) review of relevant records (as per appropriate sampling procedures) for reliability and accuracy across quality parameters.
(5) The following procedure shall be adopted for engaging agency(ies):-
(a) audit scope and the methodology for carrying out the audit to be set by the Commission;
(b) the Commission will identify and publish panel of approved agency(ies);
(c) the licensee shall nominate an agency from the notified panel of agencies;
(d) the licensee shall not engage an agency consecutively for more than two years or an agency which is currently their statutory auditor or internal auditor;
(e) the audit shall be conducted under an agreement between the nominated agency and the licensee; and
(f) remuneration of the audit agency will be paid by the licensee.