The official opposition says the auditor-general (AG) must probe the City of Johannesburg's billing process and its query resolution procedure, as the crisis is far from over.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) argues billing issues led to the city receiving qualified audits two years in a row, and that this affects its borrowing capacity. In July, the AG again qualified the city's financials for the 2010/11 year in its latest general report on the audit outcomes of local government, because of data discrepancies.
Patrick Atkinson, the DA's shadow MMC for finance in the City of Johannesburg, says the city is the worst performing metro in the country and the billing crisis has affected the quality of its information.
However, Stan Maphologela, deputy director of customer communications in the city's revenue and customer relations department, has pointed out that there were no repeat qualification issues. He adds that the audit outcome is not linked to project Phakama, which saw the city move its disparate systems to SAP, at a cost of R580 million.
Phakama saw post-implementation problems after June 2010, which led to thousands of residents complaining about grossly inflated readings and inaccurate bills.
Tip of the iceberg
In terms of “current” queries, of a total of 277 000 issues that were logged between 1 November 2011 and 26 August this year, 50 000 still have to be sorted out, the bulk of which are less than 30 days old, says Maphologela. The city has a million active account-holders.
However, Atkinson says there are at least 3 000 outstanding problems, most of which go back to before November last year, while some issues date back as far as 2003. He says many of these are simple queries that could have been resolved easily. “There's a lot more than 3 000 out there.”
Maphologela says “the city believes there is no billing crisis and has alluded to the fact that not all queries were resolved as indicated. We, therefore, cannot comment on the numbers collected by the DA as they have not been tested against our reported stats reflected in questions.”
DA caucus leader in Johannesburg, Mmusi Maimane, said last week: “There is a crisis, it has not been resolved, and the ANC in Johannesburg is in denial about that fact... The fact of the matter is that these people have been waiting in the queue, but haven't been helped.”
Atkinson says the situation is improving, but not to the extent suggested by the city. “Enough is enough; stop talking and get this thing sorted.”
Big guns
Atkinson says the DA will provide spreadsheets and supporting documentation available to the AG team conducting Johannesburg's current audit to prove the billing crisis is still in full force. “The billing crisis and the defective financial data it has produced have been at the heart of Johannesburg's failure to attain an unqualified audit over the past two years.”
The move is the result of the city's refusal last Wednesday to accept the 3 000 queries the party collected during a billing day in Emmarentia, just north of Johannesburg, says Atkinson. The party alleged the city called in the metro police to remove its delegation from the premises.
However, the city argued it has several resolution channels and account-holders passing complaints through to the opposition party will not lead to preferential treatment.
Atkinson says the AG should take a closer look at the city's billing system, as well as its query resolution process. “The city has been the recipient of two stern letters from the auditor-general highlighting the many failings and inaccuracies by the city caused largely by the billing crisis.”
The AG's latest Gauteng-specific report found the city had system-integration shortcomings, which led to property categories in the billing system differing from the system that contains information on the classification and zoning of properties, which resulted in a qualification in revenue and accounts receivables.
“In addition, meter readings for Johannesburg Water and City Power, taken by contracted meter readers and submitted to the billing department, were amended, deleted or replaced in the billing system without supporting evidence,” notes the report.
Maphologela explained that the readings were changed in order to remedy anomalies. The city hopes to reach a clean audit status by 2013.
The DA will also file complaints with the Public Protector and the National Consumer Commission (NCC) this week.
In April, the National Consumer Tribunal (NCT) cancelled 45 compliance notices issued by the NCC to the city over the protracted billing crisis that has affected thousands of residents.
The NCT found the NCC did not follow proper procedures before issuing notices to the city. Johannesburg had objected to the notices, arguing it had already resolved many of the issues cited.
Maphologela points out that the DA has no capacity to solve queries, and customers should not try and jump the queue.
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