The city of Vicksburg is going to take a close look at its water system for unaccounted water use.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen Friday approved a contract with Houston, Texas-based Water Company of America to perform an audit of the system to find users who aren’t paying their fair share for what they use.

Under the agreement, once the auditors discover an unbilled use in the city, they send the discovery to the city’s utility billing department.

“Once you bill it and collect it, we get 55 percent of that for a 36-month period, and then the city retains 100 percent into perpetuity. If we don’t find anything, we don’t get paid,” said Mike Necaise, WCA regional manager.

“This is strictly a contingency-based contract. You don’t owe us a dime if we don’t produce a new dollar of revenue.

“Basically, what we do is forensic accounting; we go out and find revenue you should be getting in your city, based upon your ordinance, but for some reason you’re not getting,” Necaise said.

He said the company has contracts with Jackson, Gulfport, and Biloxi “and have returned millions in unbilled revenue to those three cities.” He said the company also has contracts with Pascagoula and with Hattiesburg.

Necaise said there are several reasons why the city is not getting its full return on water use – theft, technology problems, or miscommunication with customers.

“Sometimes examples of what we find is in areas under construction, these contractors are hooking into these water lines without putting meters on them. We’re finding a lot of that.”

Also, he said, some commercial businesses can hook into to a dedicated fire water line without installing a meter.

“Eighty to 90 percent of your money comes from large commercial users; that’s typical in a municipality. That’s who we’re going to target,” Necaise said. “Ratepayer equity. If someone out there is not paying their fair share in corporate America, that’s going to fall on the backs of some fixed income (residents).”

“The good news is we don’t pay if they don’t find anything, and if we do pay, we get money to put in our utility fund,” Mayor George Flaggs Jr. said. “I kind of like that.”

“You’ll find something somewhere, I assure you,” North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield told Necaise.