The crux of the problem currently facing SA`s municipalities is a total lack of integration between billing and payment systems.
Linda Joyce, Marketing Manager of Bateleur Financial Solutions, says this lies at the heart of national government`s recently reported move to step in and help municipalities tackle problems such as billing systems, debt, the provision of free basic services and local economic development. The government has pledged to spend R15.6 billion on the problem over the next two years.
"As reported recently in several business newspapers, it appears that most of the country`s 284 municipalities are unable to access reliable, accurate and up-to-date information on what payments have been made and the actual quantities of water and electricity that have been used," Joyce says. "Reconciliations are difficult to do and there seems to be no correlation between meter readings and accounts."
Joyce believes a number of factors could have contributed to this situation. The municipalities could be running incompatible systems which don`t `talk` to each other, the systems could simply be too archaic to cope with requirements, or manual systems could still be in place. Whatever the cause, the result is that there are no effective checks and balances.
"The bottom line is that municipalities need to implement fully integrated financial systems," she says.
According to published reports, Free State and Eastern Cape provincial governments are already on the brink of taking over some collapsing municipalities. Government will deploy teams to focus on problem areas such as establishing reliable billing systems, identifying infrastructure needs and helping manage infrastructure projects.
Local governments with billing system problems include Johannesburg, Cederberg in Western Cape, Mafikeng and Moretele in North West, Umgeni in KwaZulu-Natal, and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan and Buffalo City in Eastern Cape.
"Municipalities can extend the reach of their financial systems by combining robust, enterprise-scale functionality with Internet technologies to provide an infrastructure which enables collaborative e-business," Joyce says.
Bateleur Financial Solutions is the sole local authorised distributor of CedAr Software, the UK`s largest provider of financial, eProcurement and performance management solutions to medium and large enterprises.
This is possible with e5, an integrated financial and e-procurement software solution from CedAr Software. The system was recently implemented by the London Borough of Hackney, resulting in dramatically improved internal financial controls. The system is expected to enable the Borough to retain control and flexibility of its financial information systems while achieving major cost savings.
e5 is extended by a range of portlet solutions designed to combine rich functionality and performance with the flexibility and availability of the Internet. Portlets enable all types of stakeholders, such as suppliers, ratepayers and staff to employ self-service techniques and participate in collaborative e-business solutions.
"This approach is fully in line with local governments` aim to introduce self-service facilities to ratepayers, with facilities such as downloading statements from the Internet and electronic payments," Joyce points out.
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