February 26, 2004
By Thomas Thale
THE City of Johannesburg on Wednesday unveiled new, decisive steps to resolve the billing and credit control problems that have dogged it in recent months.
Addressing a media briefing on the subject, Amos Masondo, the executive mayor of Johannesburg, admitted there were serious shortcomings in the billing and credit control systems of the City, but pledged to act resolutely to solve the problems.
Masondo thanked the media for highlighting the problems encountered by ratepayers, and committed the City to a new ethos in which "the customer is never wrong". The new interventions, said Masondo, are adequate "and significantly allow us to improve the situation. There is no room for ineptitude and mediocrity in the way the council deals its clients".
The measures, outlined by Parks Tau, the councillor responsible for finance, strategy and economic development in the City, are:
- Two meter-reading contractors, whose performance has been below standard, will not have their contracts renewed in March
- The new meter reading contracts will have much strengthened performance and penalty clauses, which include summary dismissals
- A separate contract will be issued for verifying meter readings
- A new meter-reading quality control software is already being piloted in Sandton. The software has greatly improved meter-reading quality in respect of water
- Action against poor people who have applied to be exempted from paying rates in terms of the council's Special Cases Policy will be withdrawn. Approximately 20 000 households have registered as special cases
- From 1 July 2004, each customer will be assigned to an account query resolution officer who will be the only person to work on that portfolio and can therefore be held directly accountable for any query resolution that may be required
- A portfolio management unit will be established to manage major account holders, including corporate clients and government departments
- A query resolution team has been established to resolve the current backlog by 30 June 2004
- Decentralised query resolution teams, with full access to the billing system and full authority to resolve queries, will be established at the People's Centres in each region
- Credit control for households owing in respect of water services will entail restriction valves rather than service cuts
Tau said attorneys applying for a financial clearance on a property should not experience any delays. About 80 percent of the applications are processed within three days, Tau said. "But where documentation is not available, it could take up to 27 days to process the application." According to Tau, the City processes between 4 500 and 5 000 applications a month.
The City committed itself to strict time frames in the implementation of these measures. From the beginning of March, said Tau, the City will introduce stricter management controls. "We will give you a progress report on the implementation of these various initiatives early in May 2004," Tau said. In April, said Tau, the City will conduct an annual customer survey to get feedback from residents.
About 320 City employees have undergone training in customer care, Tau said.
Tau called on customers to register on the website to submit their readings electronically. "To date, 10 000 customers have registered to use this facility," Tau said.
There should be an understanding across council that the customer is never wrong. "This means we must do everything we can to deal with issues as effectively and efficiently as possible."
Masondo called on residents to pay for the services they consume. He expressed confidence that the City's credit control measures are beginning to bear fruit, with payment levels increasing from an average of 84,7 percent in 2003 to 92 percent in December and January.
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