2019 Connecticut General Statutes
Title 16 - Public Service Companies
Chapter 277 - Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. Public Utilities Regulatory Authority. Office of Consumer Counsel. Miscellaneous Provisions
Section 16-8 - Examination of witnesses and documents. Hearing officers. Management audits.
(a) The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority may, in its discretion, delegate its powers, in specific cases, to one or more of its directors or to a hearing officer to ascertain the facts and report thereon to the authority. The authority, or any director thereof, in the performance of its duties or in connection with any hearing, or at the request of any person, corporation, company, town, borough or association, may summon and examine, under oath, such witnesses, and may direct the production of, and examine or cause to be produced and examined, such books, records, vouchers, memoranda, documents, letters, contracts or other papers in relation to the affairs of any public service company as it may find advisable, and shall have the same powers in reference thereto as are vested in magistrates taking depositions. If any witness objects to testifying or to producing any book or paper on the ground that such testimony, book or paper may tend to incriminate him, and the authority directs such witness to testify or to produce such book or paper, and he complies, or if he is compelled so to do by order of court, he shall not be prosecuted for any matter concerning which he or she has so testified. The fees of witnesses summoned by the authority to appear before it under the provisions of this section, and the fees for summoning witnesses shall be the same as in the Superior Court. All such fees, together with any other expenses authorized by statute, the method of payment of which is not otherwise provided, shall, when taxed by the authority, be paid by the state, through the business office of the authority, in the same manner as court expenses. The authority may designate in specific cases a hearing officer who may be a member of its technical staff or a member of the Connecticut Bar engaged for that purpose under a contract approved by the Secretary of the Office of Policy and Management to hold a hearing and make report thereon to the authority. A hearing officer so designated shall have the same powers as the authority, or any director thereof, to conduct a hearing, except that only a director of the authority shall have the power to grant immunity from prosecution to any witness who objects to testifying or to producing any book or paper on the ground that such testimony, book or paper may tend to incriminate him or her.
(b) (1) The authority may employ professional personnel to perform management audits. The authority shall promptly establish such procedures as it deems necessary or desirable to provide for management audits to be performed on a regular or irregular schedule on all or any portion of the operating procedures and any other internal workings of any public service company, including the relationship between any public service company and a related holding company or subsidiary, consistent with the provisions of section 16-8c, provided no such audit shall be performed on a community antenna television company, except with regard to any noncable communications services which the company may provide, or when (A) such an audit is necessary for the authority to perform its regulatory functions under the Communications Act of 1934, 47 USC 151, et seq., as amended from time to time, other federal law or state law, (B) the cost of such an audit is warranted by a reasonably foreseeable financial, safety or service benefit to subscribers of the company which is the subject of such an audit, and (C) such an audit is restricted to examination of the operating procedures that affect operations within the state.
(2) In any case where the authority determines that an audit is necessary or desirable, it may (A) order the audit to be performed by one of the management audit teams, (B) require the affected company to perform the audit utilizing the company's own internal management audit staff as supervised by designated members of the authority's staff, or (C) require that the audit be performed under the supervision of designated members of the authority's staff by an independent management consulting firm selected by the authority, in consultation with the affected company. If the affected company has more than seventy-five thousand customers, such independent management consulting firm shall be of nationally recognized stature. All reasonable and proper expenses of the audits, including, but not limited to, the costs associated with the audit firm's testimony at a public hearing or other proceeding, shall be borne by the affected companies and shall be paid by such companies at such times and in such manner as the authority directs.
(3) For purposes of this section, a complete audit shall consist of (A) a diagnostic review of all functions of the audited company, which shall include, but not be limited to, documentation of the operations of the company, assessment of the company's system of internal controls, and identification of any areas of the company which may require subsequent audits, and (B) the performance of subsequent focused audits identified in the diagnostic review and determined necessary by the authority. All audits performed pursuant to this section shall be performed in accordance with generally accepted management audit standards. The authority shall adopt regulations in accordance with the provisions of chapter 54 setting forth such generally accepted management audit standards. Each audit of a community antenna television company shall be consistent with the provisions of the Communications Act of 1934, 47 USC 151, et seq., as amended from time to time, and of any other applicable federal law. The authority shall certify whether a portion of an audit conforms to the provisions of this section and constitutes a portion of a complete audit.
(4) A complete audit of each portion of each gas company or electric distribution company having more than seventy-five thousand customers shall begin no less frequently than every six years, so that a complete audit of such a company's operations shall be performed every six years. Such an audit of each such company having more than seventy-five thousand customers shall be updated as required by the authority.
(5) The results of an audit performed pursuant to this section shall be filed with the authority and shall be open to public inspection. Upon completion and review of the audit, if the person or firm performing or supervising the audit determines that any of the operating procedures or any other internal workings of the affected public service company are inefficient, improvident, unreasonable, negligent or in abuse of discretion, the authority may, after notice and opportunity for a hearing, order the affected public service company to adopt such new or altered practices and procedures as the authority shall find necessary to promote efficient and adequate service to meet the public convenience and necessity. The authority shall annually submit a report of audits performed pursuant to this section to the joint standing committee of the General Assembly having cognizance of matters relating to public utilities which report shall include the status of audits begun but not yet completed and a summary of the results of audits completed. Any such report may be submitted electronically.
(6) All reasonable and proper costs and expenses, as determined by the authority, of complying with any order of the authority pursuant to this subsection shall be recognized by the authority for all purposes as proper business expenses of the affected company.
(7) After notice and hearing, the authority may modify the scope and schedule of a management audit of a telephone company which is subject to an alternative form of regulation so that such audit is consistent with that alternative form of regulation.
(c) Nothing in this section shall be deemed to interfere or conflict with any powers of the authority or its staff provided elsewhere in the general statutes, including, but not limited to, the provisions of this section and sections 16-7, 16-28 and 16-32, to conduct an audit, investigation or review of the books, records, plant and equipment of any regulated public service company.
(1949 Rev., S. 5398; P.A. 73-355, S. 2; P.A. 75-486, S. 6, 69; P.A. 77-614, S. 19, 162, 587, 610; P.A. 78-303, S. 85, 136; P.A. 80-168; 80-482, S. 4, 40, 45, 345, 348; P.A. 81-348, S. 1; P.A. 82-472, S. 50, 183; P.A. 85-509, S. 2, 11; 85-552, S. 4, 8; P.A. 90-221, S. 2, 15; P.A. 94-229, S. 1; P.A. 97-23; P.A. 98-28, S. 83, 117; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 98-1, S. 5, 121; P.A. 11-80, S. 1, 23; P.A. 13-5, S. 2; P.A. 13-119, S. 1, 2; P.A. 14-134, S. 48.)
History: P.A. 73-355 specified that hearing examiners may be staff member or member of Connecticut bar; P.A. 75-486 replaced public utilities commission with public utilities control authority, allowed authority to act at request of person, corporation, company, town, borough or association and added Subsec. (b) re audits; P.A. 77-614 and P.A. 78-303 replaced commissioner of finance and control with secretary of the office of policy and management and, effective January 1, 1979, replaced public utilities control authority with division of public utility control within the department of business regulation; P.A. 80-168 replaced “member(s)” with “commissioner(s)”, and “secretary” with “business office”, allowed delegation of powers to hearing examiners and replaced provision whereby hearing examiner had power only to administer oaths with provision granting examiners same powers as division except power to grant immunity from prosecution; P.A. 80-482 made division an independent department with public utilities control authority as its head; P.A. 81-348 reduced number of consulting firms required to be included in list provided to company by department in Subsec. (b), from five to three; P.A. 82-472 made technical corrections; P.A. 85-509 divided Subsec. (b) into Subsecs. (b) and (c) and, in Subsec. (b), prohibited management audits of community antenna television companies except with regard to noncable communications services; P.A. 85-552 amended Subsec. (b) to require department, instead of affected company, to select consulting firm for management audit, to require consulting firm to be of nationally-recognized stature if affected company has more than 75,000 customers and to require periodic audits only of gas, electric and telephone companies having more than 75,000 customers; P.A. 90-221 in Subsec. (b) added provision that the affected companies shall pay all reasonable and proper costs of an audit, including the costs of the audit firm's testimony at a public hearing and a provision that such costs shall be paid as directed by the department; P.A. 94-229 amended Subsec. (b) by adding Subdiv. designations, adding provision re relationship between public service company and related holding company or subsidiary in Subdiv. (1), adding Subparas. (A) to (C) re audits of community antenna television companies in Subdiv. (1), changing subdivision designations to subparagraph designations in Subdiv. (2), deleting provision re audits of gas, electric or telephone companies having more than 75,000 customers from Subdiv. (2), adding Subdiv. (3) re complete audits, adding Subdiv. (4) re audits of gas, electric and telephone companies having more than 75,000 customers, changing “any such audits” to “an audit performed pursuant to this section” in Subdiv. (5), adding provision re report of audits in Subdiv. (5), and adding Subdiv. (7) re audits of telephone companies subject to an alternative form of regulation; P.A. 97-23 amended Subsec. (b)(4) to delete references to telephone companies and delete provision requiring department to schedule complete audits; P.A. 98-28 amended Subsec. (b)(4) by adding electric distribution companies, effective July 1, 1998; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 98-1 made a technical change to Subsec. (b)(5), effective June 24, 1998; P.A. 11-80 amended Subsecs. (a) and (b) to replace “Department of Public Utility Control” with “Public Utilities Regulatory Authority”, “department” with “authority” and “hearing examiner” with “hearing officer” and amended Subsec. (b)(1) to replace provision allowing Department of Public Utility Control to establish management audit teams with provision allowing authority, within available appropriations, to employ personnel to perform management audits, effective July 1, 2011; pursuant to P.A. 11-80, “department” was changed editorially by the Revisors to “authority” in Subsec. (c), effective July 1, 2011; P.A. 13-5 amended Subsecs. (a) and (b)(3) to replace “department” with “authority”, effective May 8, 2013; P.A. 13-119 amended Subsec. (b) to delete “within available appropriations,” re employment of professional personnel to perform management audits in Subdiv. (1) and to add provision re electronic submission of report in Subdiv. (5), effective June 18, 2013; P.A. 14-134 amended Subsec. (b)(4) by deleting reference to electric company and making a technical change, effective June 6, 2014.
See Sec. 52-260 re witness fees.
Cited. 162 C. 51; 210 C. 349.
Cited. 44 CS 21.
