Six thousand water bills were mailed to wrong addresses in 2005 because the Water Services Department transferred data to its new billing system before errors in the database were fixed, the Audit Commission said.
The watchdog also took the department to task for a string of problems arising from the delay in completing the new customer care and billing system, which resulted in more than HK$11 million in extra costs.
The report said the Legislative Council approved HK$253.1 million in 2001 for the new system, which was scheduled to be operational in September 2004.
However, the system's complexity was underestimated and it was not fully implemented until June 2006.
In the intervening period, 16,000 applications for new water accounts were held up and the department needed extra manpower costing HK$7.4 million to clear the backlog. The contractor also demanded 94 changes in the system's design, costing an extra HK$8.54 million.
In late 2003, the department decided to adopt Hongkong Post's address lists. A contractor developed a computer program to match the department's English addresses with the post office list.
