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The first deadline on the Billing Roadmap has passed and Joburg is investigating how well the strategy is working to overcome City account issues.
THE City is collating data and statistics to determine how well its Billing Roadmap, which was set up in November 2011, is running.
 Gerald Dumas: Tasked with dealing with the billing issue in the CityThe 19-month-long strategy was designed to improve revenue collection and the accuracy of the City’s billing system. Implementation is divided into three phases, the first of which focuses on quick wins and customer experience, and phase two on stabilising the billing system. The third phase is devoted to maintenance and sustainability.
A comprehensive statement on the progress of the Billing Roadmap would be made on 7 March at a media briefing at Metro Centre in Braamfontein, said a council spokesperson, Gabu Tugwana. Milestones achieved on target dates during the 19 months of implementation would be revealed.
Billing woes began when the municipality upgraded its revenue collection software to an integrated SAP platform to streamline operations, including billing, revenue collection and customer services. The idea was to enable municipal customers to get billing information from one customer contact centre instead of from different municipal entities.
All accounts were configured into one billing database, which includes customer details such as their property size, tariffs, identity numbers, postal addresses and credit control data.
Rates and services
However, there were glitches in the rollout and the interface between the old and new systems. As a result, customers began receiving inflated and inaccurate municipal accounts for rates and services. It was also reported that mismanagement in the revenue department was to blame for some of the problems.
It caused a backlog in the operations of the revenue department. The City noted that there was no “billing crisis” and set steps in motion to rectify issues.
Gerald Dumas, previously the managing director of Joburg Water, was appointed to head a task team to deal with billing. He is the overall project manager and works with the City’s group financial officer, the chief executives of Joburg Water, City Power and Pikitup; and the heads of departments of rates and valuations, and revenue management and customer relations management. The team reports directly to the City manager, Trevor Fowler, who in turn reports to the mayor and his committee and then to the council.
“The roadmap is designed to bring about a ‘step-change’ in Johannesburg’s billing and revenue collection system and to improve the quality of the customers’ interaction with the City,” said Tugwana.
Deadline
At its launch, Dumas said the roadmap had identified 28 February 2012 as the first deadline to achieve accuracy of billing, query resolution and meter reading accuracy, and significant progress must have been made to resolve customer queries, including the resolution of clearances and change of ownership queries.
By that time, the City should have an improved customer interface underpinned by a set of implemented basic standards of service to which City officials would be held accountable; the backlog in property valuations would be cleared, and customer queries largely resolved.
The next roadmap deadline is 30 June, by which date customer data should be consistent with the reality on the ground, a comprehensive customer charter should have been published and implemented, and credit management should have been enhanced to be more customer responsive, which would improve the City’s capacity to monitor and recover debt.
The Billing Roadmap forecasts that by June 2013, all billing backlogs and queries will have been resolved.
A week ago, the City said it was ahead of its revenue collection targets and was on track to meet the goals set out in the 2011/12 budget.
The portfolio head of finance, Geoffrey Makhubo, said the City was making strides. “We are making steady progress to strengthen our revenue collection service and restore confidence in the integrity of our billing data.”
Revenue collection
Six-month figures compiled at the end of January showed that Johannesburg collected R11,86-billion, exceeding revenue targets by R466,2-million. Makhubo said customers were showing “greater inclination” to pay for municipal services, including water, electricity and waste removal.
In his mid-term budget, Executive Mayor Parks Tau said the City was strengthening financial management and accountability, working towards financial stability and sustainability, and ensuring that expenditure was aligned with revenue and that the City had sufficient cash to meet its debt obligations.
Municipal customers are required to always keep their personal and contact details up to date, including their identity number, verifiable physical address, postal address, email address and cellphone or landline number.
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