MMC promises better credit management
Residents can expect service terminations to be handled better
“Our vision is to run a financially sustainable and well-run Finance Department in a caring and professional manner,” said the Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Finance.
In a recent press release, the MMC, councillor Rabelani Dagada said that, in an attempt to improve the accuracy of disconnections, the CoJ has instituted a verification process that will be done by the Group Head of Revenue Shared Service Centre (RSSC).
Due to the public outcry regarding the termination of services within the CoJ following alleged non-payment, the municipality was prompted to announce new measures to sanction these cases. “We are doing all we can to reverse the City’s long-standing billing crisis,” Dagada said.
He added that during the past months the CoJ has received numerous complaints from customers about alleged wrongful disconnections. “We have promised the residents of Johannesburg that we will run a caring, responsive and professional government and therefore we found it necessary to improve the credit-management process, particularly the termination of services,” he said.
Because the ideal for the municipality is that services do not have to be terminated because of ratepayers not managing their municipal debt, sanctioning the termination of these services for defaulting customers will now be managed at a higher level.
To get the improved process started, a list of accounts that are due for disconnection will be issued by the City’s Credit Management team. “This list will then be reviewed by the Director of Credit Management before issuing the final one,” said Dagada.The list will be reviewed to identify incorrect imminent disconnections, accounts with queries as well as accounts for which payments made are not yet reflecting on the CoJ system. “We are working tirelessly to improve the quality of the City’s billing data to reduce inaccuracies in billing and collection services,” he said.
He explained that, in terms of section 64(2) of the Local Government: Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA), the City must take reasonable steps to ensure that an effective revenue-collection system, credit-control and debt-collection policies and procedures are in place.
“Credit management is intended to rehabilitate customer debt and assist ratepayers to remedy their municipal accounts so they do not continue being indebted to the City,” he said.
He added that this was the City’s last resort to collecting overdue monies.
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