Dear Residents
As reported in an earlier column, the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CogTa) has appointed Kagiso Trust to assist Makana Municipality with revenue enhancement and cleansing of its customer data.
This partnership between Makana Municipality and Kagiso Trust has had a significantly positive impact in the following Key Focus Areas (KFAs):
- Data cleansing
- Deceased customers
- Customer relationship management
- Cash and loss management
- Indigent management and
- Valuation Roll
Data cleansing
Out of 24 015 accounts assessed, there are only 4 035 whose IDs still need to be obtained and updated. 1 922 accounts with balances less than R100 have been written off. All the 13 242 accounts that had no telephone records have been resolved. Out of 29 876 accounts of tenants amounting to R72.9 million, only 2 932 accounts are still to be finalised. 100% of the 25 852 of additional telephone numbers have been updated in the Financial Management System leading to a 60% increase in traceability.
Deceased customers
Out of 5994 accounts analysed, 5240 (87%) have been finalised or resolved. This amounts to R153m that has to be taken off the municipal Debt book.
Customer Relationship Management
90% of the queries that were logged were around meter readings and faulty meters. Of these, 87% have since been resolved.
Cash and loss management
A cash flow monitoring tool has been designed and developed. Another tool for distribution loss calculation for electricity and water has also been developed and designed. Out of the 10 issues identified by the Auditor General, six have been resolved while two are being addressed and two are still to be resolved. Revenue lost from electricity amount to R182,3m. This loss is due to the following factors:
- Ageing infrastructure;
- Theft due to meter tampering;
- Customers receiving services but not being billed for those services;
- Infrastructure that is not tamper proof
- Identified over-billing by Eskom over a 31 month retrospective analysis resulted in a R13m credit to the municipality.
Indigent management
A total of 7 412 accounts have been processed resulting in an amount of R37.4m. The overstatement of the indigent register has been reduced by 25% of beneficiaries found to be earning more than the threshold. Conversely, there were also potential customers identified that were earning less than the threshold and the understatement of indigents can improve by 30%. To this end, 1 177 notices have been sent for assessment to households likely to qualify as indigent.
Valuation Roll
20 836 properties have been evaluated. Of these, 966 had a combined value of R162m and 1 423 properties registered with a combined value of R2.2bn were added to the valuation roll. Municipal staff have been trained in the revenue management system called 14 KDOS 1 & 2, customer query management and on processes and procedures 14 KFA and KFI systems. With the latest IT system in place as well as trained and committed municipal staff, we should turn around the financial situation of this municipality.
