Wednesday 24 August 2011

Big Six Under Investigation

The UK’s energy watchdog, Ofgem, has hired the services of  private accountants from BDO to scrutinise how the “energy giants” calculate their profits. So far five out of the so called “Big Six” energy and gas suppliers have increased prices despite wholesale gas and energy prices registering multi-months lows.

BDO is the world’s fifth largest accountancy organisation and it was hired by Ofgem to improve transparency over the pricing policies of the energy companies and give consumers more clarity regarding the relationship between retail prices and wholesale energy costs.

The group of forensic accountants will investigate dodgy practises, trading profits and wholesale prices. Since March, when Ofgem noticed that energy suppliers raised prices in response to higher costs faster than they reduced them when costs dropped, hence the idea of hiring an independent consultancy firm to provide a third opinion.

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