THE Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality has hatched a master plan to improve its revenue collection. The plan is already in motion following the establishment of a revenue collection unit known as the Revenue Enhancement Unit.

“Improved revenue collection will ensure that we are able to do more in terms of improving the levels and quality of service delivery. There is very little we can do as council if we do not get money for the services rendered to customers. We have undertaken to give local people a better life, and we will pull all stops to ensure that this happens, but money is needed in order for us to meet the needs of our people,” said councillor Lungile Mtshali, member of the mayoral committee heading the finance portfolio committee.

“In the budget speech the executive mayor indicated that the target in terms of revenue collection for this financial year is 95% hence we have put in place a team of dedicated employees that can deliver on this target. A few weeks back council approved a new debt collection strategy because we mean business. Having pointed this out though, our new aggressive approach will be done within the confines of the law as we do not want to wrong people in the process of collecting monies due to council.”

At the moment the municipality is standing on 89% revenue collection.

The Revenue Enhancement Team comprises a project manager, regional coordinator, chief accountant, chief clerk, six senior clerks and 20 staff on contracts. The team terms of reference includes tracking government accounts, recovering outstanding monies from all customers and monitoring all accounts on a regular basis.

“We want this team to employ the same aggression used by credit stores. We want them to be able to call customers and SMS them with reminders with regards to the payment of their accounts,” said Mtshali.

The team has already been divided into sections that will look at government, business and residential accounts, the tracking of outstanding accounts and correct and accurate billing. The unit has also been tasked with addressing any challenges that may be faced by Ekurhuleni ratepayers.

“We have already started liaising with the Gauteng Shared Serviced Centre with regards to outstanding government accounts, and I must say that they have been very helpful in assisting us recover outstanding monies. What is even more interesting is that we have picked up that some monies were paid to us but for some reason we could not access the money. This is one of the issues that the team will be looking at to ensure that such do not happen again,” explains Mtshali.

The metro has also embarked on a campaign called ‘Top 2000 Business Accounts’. This drive is targeting companies that have outstanding accounts that are 120 days and older. Accounts that have electricity as part of the services rendered were prioritized and final notices have been sent to these businesses to pay them or face a blackout without any further notice.

“Some companies are co-operative as they immediately make arrangements to pay, however, some choose to ignore us and in those instances we have not hesitated to cut off the services rendered by the council,” points out Mtshali. “The reason we give the notice is to extend an olive branch because we do not want to come across as an uncaring organization, but we want our people to realize that they are in debt and thus have an obligation to pay these outstanding monies. However, we shall not allow to be ignored.”

Mtshali said that council will not only be focusing on collecting monies, but will be embarking on a drive to educate people about the importance of paying for services, discourage illegal connections of electricity and encourage communities to report water leaks.

“This must be a two-way system if we are to succeed. The community must play their part and as council we shall play ours. The community and business are our key stakeholders and we need each other if we are to win in providing quality services as a metro and contribute immensely to improving the general living conditions of the people of Ekurhuleni. We further give an undertaking that if people pay for their services they will see great improvement when it comes to development in the region.”