Fact 1: Vicksburg’s natural gas utility has paid its suppliers in full.

Fact 2: Five customers of the utility have been billed a total of $867,000 less than they should have been.

Fact 3: Mayor Paul Winfield insists no properly billed customers paid more than they should have.

Fact 4: Given Fact 1 and Fact 2, Fact 3 is hard to accept.

We’re not talking about something penny-ante. If evenly spread among the utility’s 9,000 meters, the added cost would have been almost $100 per meter.

Regardless, as the Post reported last week, the city has now presented corrected bills to five customers. Most of the money is said to be owed by Rainbow Casino — $751,107. The Vicksburg Warren School District is said to owe $88,000 and the city is seeking lesser amounts from Big River Shipbuilders, First Baptist Church and One Source Systems. Rainbow’s situation is further complicated in that the “debt” was incurred before its books were finalized and a transfer to new corporate ownership was completed last month.

The problem has been traced to failure to change billing software to reflect installation of what are called multiplier meters. In short, each of the five was being billed for one-tenth of actual consumption until the error was discovered.

We foresee a contest of wills.

In a letter, Big River essentially responded that it was the city’s error, company books have been closed and tax returns filed — so the city should write off the loss.

But Winfield is correct when he says a city, unlike a private business, cannot legally erase a debt. It’s also tenable that other bills, were, in fact, accurate and, as Tim Smith, purchasing director, said, “the city was left holding the bag.” If that’s so, then if the previously unbilled amounts are collected, customers should have a decent cushion against future gas price increases.

How this saga will end no one knows. Winfield, who inherited the dilemma, may skate on his statement that other customers weren’t overcharged. But it’s also clear there’s a Fact 5: Somebody — or several somebodies — were asleep at the switch.