NEVER too far away from controversy, Guernsey’s regulator today finds itself slap bang back in the maelstrom of a brewing  political row once again.

But this time the Office of Utility Regulation is facing a different brand of flak than usual – and one far closer to home.

The consumers’ watchdog, charged with ensuring value for money and competitiveness across the telecommunications, electricity and postal industries is facing criticism over how it  operates and measures up.

That’s perhaps unsurprising because it has  rarely been out of the headlines and dividing opinion in recent months.

And that’s something that looks unlikely to change any time soon with confirmation that a Policy Council minister is set to take a petition to the States calling for a complete review of the regulator’s mandate.

The call comes at a crucial time in the development of the OUR, set up in 2001. As we highlighted on Saturday, it is currently planning a major restructure and expansion: recruiting four more staff and being given more responsibilities. It also plans to change its name to the Guernsey Competition and Consumer Authority.

Not an ideal situation, then, for either the OUR,  facing the unenviable prospect of having the spotlight turned on itself, or for the States, which when agreeing to introduce a competition law in July 2009 noted that an expanded regulatory body would be needed.

If the minister’s claims, featured on page 3 today, are found to be justified (namely that ‘the regulator is putting some of the essential utilities at financial risk’) then States intervention at this stage may be justified. And, yes, ‘ground rules’ need to be sorted, although you would have thought these were put in place long ago.

The OUR, or GCCA as it will be called, will always have a challenging relationship with the States, thanks to its part-funding by government grant while operating within a commercial landscape.

But if any review does go ahead then it is imperative that the interests of consumers and the economic wellbeing of this community remain the focus.