The District government has paid Washington Gas up to $700,000 annually in late fees over many years for failing to remit its gas bills within 20 days of the due date.

The gas company’s longtime policy of billing per meter has left D.C.’s Office of Property Management and the Office of the Chief Financial Officer flummoxed by monthly statements. The District has been unable to pay the bills on time, producing late fees of $300,000 to $700,000 a year, said David Umansky, spokesman for the CFO’s office.

The penalties have been paid as a matter of course for as long as anyone can remember, Umansky said, but there’s no specific record and no way to detail exactly how much the city has lost.

The D.C. Public Service Commission last week issued an order allowing Washington Gas to waive the District’s late fees until the utility can develop and institute a new billing mechanism — essentially one bill for the entire government. Washington Gas requested the right to waive the fees following a year of negotiations with city officials.

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“Inasmuch as those late fees are ultimately borne by taxpayers, we find good cause to temporarily waive application of the tariff’s 20-day payment provision until WGL can implement its new consolidated mechanism for the District accounts,” the commission wrote in its order, which it delivered Thursday.

Interim Attorney General Peter Nickles said Friday that he was told about the late fee issue a month ago and immediately launched a protest. The city has not waived its right to try to recover some of those late payments, Nickles said.

“It’s ridiculous, and we’re not going to accept it,” Nickles said.

No other Washington Gas client incurs so many regular late fees due to the delay associated with processing multiple accounts, according to the utility. Washington Gas does not discuss client information, spokesman Eric Grant said.

The late payment charge equals 1 percent of an unpaid bill, and increases to 1.5 percent for any amount unpaid after another 30-day billing cycle.

Umansky said the District

has paid all of its bills, and “there are no more late fees to be charged.”

“With the kind of money we have in this government, it’s absurd to be paying late fees,” said D.C. Councilwoman Carol Schwartz. “We shouldn’t be paying a nickel more, much less hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

mneibauer@dcexaminer.com