God damn CIC!
I think I know what they are doing! They are applying some make up to improve quality indicators!
I think they are processing somes applications from October/November on to meet a 15 months target, therefore speeding up the processing time.
And that will move the average down to 18 months (now = 19) because unfinished cases (imagine Excel blank cases) do not account for the average! If the applications are not finished, you can't add them.
That way, the people from October/November with 15 months will compensate the July/August applications that are now at 19 months, and just aafew applicants from October/November will hide their sluggish work.
-i.e., if 200 peeps are still in process and behind normal processing time, to lets say, 20 months, 200 super fast applications with 16 months would hold the average at 18 months!
And because September is now at about 17 months, a few slower cases won't push the average up that much.
They did the same to June/July applicants. They had their ghost, but saw many of their August peers get in front of them.