Supplementary reporting items
Our Fraud and Corruption Control Framework outlines our commitment to creating an honest and ethical business environment with zero tolerance of fraud or corruption in any form. We perform a range of activities to prevent, detect and respond to fraud and corruption, including:
- executive oversight of our Fraud and Corruption Control Framework by the Chief Financial Officer as designated Fraud and Corruption Control Coordinator
- communication to our people on their requirement to act in accordance with our Ethical Standards Procedure, how to report matters of concern and the protections provided to them in the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2018.
- regular fraud and corruption risk assessments undertaken with risk treatment plans for high-risk areas
- investigations of all allegations of fraud or corruption in accordance with our Fraud and Corruption Control Framework
- data analytic reviews conducted on payroll and accounts payable transactions by our internal audit function
- communication to our people on their requirement to act in accordance with our Ethical Standards Procedure, how to report matters of concern and the protections provided to them in the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2018.
Through our Public Interest Disclosure Procedure, we are committed to encouraging and facilitating disclosure, in the public interest, of information about substantial risks to public health, safety or the environment, or about corruption, misconduct and maladministration in public administration.
SA Water reports requisite allegations of fraud, corruption, misconduct or maladministration to the Office for Public Integrity or the Independent Commission Against Corruption, South Australia and acts in accordance with their advice, while maintaining statutorily required confidentiality.
Our enterprise risk management approach is aligned with the South Australian Government Risk Management Guide and the principles of risk management as set out in the international risk management standard ISO 31000:2018 Risk Management – Guidelines.
Our commitment to effective risk management enables the consideration and treatment of risk to be integrated into functions, programs and operations with well-informed, risk-based decision-making. Our enterprise risk profile is reported regularly to our Board through its Governance, Finance and Risk Committee.
Our Customer Care Centre is the first point of contact for all customer feedback, and our Customer Advocate team manages responses for all escalated complaints and investigations. Across these 2 teams, we continue to proactively identify improvements to the feedback management processes across our organisation.
All forms of organisational feedback, including complaints, are valued and help us to build customer trust and confidence and deliver excellent customer experiences.
In 2024-25, we received 3,631 complaints. This equated to 4.3 complaints per 1,000 customers, which was higher than the 3.8 complaints per 1,000 customers received in 2023-24. This increase was driven by our continued commitment to improving complaint recognition and capture, including broader training for our people in complaint management. We continue to view this increase as a positive indication of our improvement and have not identified a specific trend or operational issue at this time.
The most common complaint types received in 2024-25 related to:
1. water quality
2. operations and maintenance in the metropolitan Adelaide area
3. meter reading and estimates.
Of the customer complaints we received, 50.0 per cent were resolved at the first point of customer contact, which is an increase from 41.39 per cent in 2023-24. We responded to 96.88 per cent of complaints within target times, with 9.45 per cent of complaints escalated to the industry ombudsman.
A total of 297 complaints on a range of issues were escalated to the Energy and Water Ombudsman of South Australia (EWOSA) for review in 2024-25. This was an increase from 219 complaints in 2023-24. The largest number of complaint type escalated to EWOSA were related to costs incurred for high water use, which has been a consistent trend over the past 3 years.
We continue to review our processes, strive for best practice guidelines and improve our recognition and capture of customer complaints at first contact. This work is designed to collect insights for our business and improve our overall customer experience.