By Thomas Thale
IMPROVEMENTS in the revenue department have seen the city collecting a record R728-million in rates for the month of March. This figure represents a marked improvement on the R570-million collected in the same period last year.
Addressing the media on Wednesday, Kenny Fihla, the councillor responsible for finance, strategy and economic development in the city, attributed this increase to "revenue improvement projects" - interventions introduced to improve the capacity of the city to bill and collect revenue.
"Our immediate intervention was to strengthen the capacity of senior and middle management in the revenue department. This has now been done," said Fihla. "What remains now is for the supervisory levels to be beefed up."
The revenue department has, in the past, received negative publicity, with irate ratepayers complaining about its inefficiency. The problems faced by the department were partly due to the sheer scale of its operations. The city administers 1.2-million accounts distributed across 800 000 households per month.
In the last financial year, the city billed its customers for some R7,4-billion and collected R6,5-billion. The amount owed to the city by defaulting ratepayers stands at R4-billion. "We had excessive account errors and unsatisfactory customer service dating back to 2000," Fihla admitted. "But that's is all in the past."
The short-term measures introduced by the city include filling up crucial management posts, cleaning up the data, distributing statements through the internet, enhancing credit control and weeding out corrupt elements in the department.
These steps have enhanced the capacity of the revenue department. The department has now managed to:
- Increase payment levels from 86% to 88% - a "marginal but sustained growth".
- Increase collection of RSC levies (paid by businesses) by 25% (to R250-million).
- Increase meter readings from 40% to 90% over the past year.
- Reduce the time it took to resolve queries from an average of 60 days recorded in September last year to 14 days on average.
- Reduce the number of abandoned calls from over 50% experienced last September to 0% in January and February.
- Collect R100-million owed by Government Departments.
- Record an average of 30 000 service cuts per month.
- Increase resolved queries from an average of 10 000 recorded last year to 30 000 per month currently.
Fihla said the increase in the collection of RSC levies "reflects a growth in the tax base and efficiency in our ability to collect". He vowed that arrears would be cleared in a matter of months. With the establishment of the municipal court later in the year, prosecution of defaulters will be stepped up.
According to Fihla, the worst culprits are affluent residents in suburbs who can actually afford to pay their rates. Slumlords and absentee landlords of buildings in the inner city also default on their rates. "Poor areas account for only 12,5% of the city's revenue," He said.
Keith Sendwe, director of the revenue department in the city, expressed confidence that problems in revenue collection are being eliminated. He said meter readings were hampered by households which were not accessible to council employees. "We will now make embark on a campaign to access those houses even after hours," he said.
The city has put aside a R350 million social package to subsidise indigent households and to provide free water and electricity.
In the medium term, the city is working on an ambitious plan to establish a Revenue Shared Services Centre by 2006.
