Chronicle Editor
Bongani Ndlovu, Chronicle Reporter
THE Bulawayo City council has reviewed nearly 120 000 incorrect bills in 19 of the city’s 26 wards with more expected to come as the local authority tries to recoup over $5 billion owned by rate payers.
According to the latest council minutes, 60 percent of the debt ($3 billion) is owed by domestic consumers, while industrial and commercial debtors comprise 31 percent ($1.5 billion) with Government departments constituting nine percent ($400 million).
Over the past months, residents have been receiving high monthly bills, which when they query from the local authority, are told there was a mistake with the billing system.
This led residents to question the authenticity of council’s billing system.
According to the latest council report, the local authority handled 119 964 billing adjustments to correct high bills.
The local authority also admits having challenges in meter reading.
“To date, 119 964 billing adjustments had been passed to correct high bills in 19 out of 26 wards.
The adjustment of the remaining seven wards was expected to be completed by the end of May 2022,” reads the report.
“Thereafter high bill queries were expected to reduce significantly.
To address the issue of billing inaccuracies there was needed to maintain an optimum level of human and material resources.
“The meter reading section used to have five vehicles, which had broken down.
The section now relied on assistance from the debt recovery unit to ferry staff to the field.
Verifications and checking of suspected incorrect readings had been suspended.”
The report notes the problem stemmed from bills not being read from 2020 to 2021 due to Covid-19 and a shortage of meter readers.
“Water meters were not read for 16 months from March 2020 to June 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and human resource challenges,” it said.
“Twenty-four contract meter readers were engaged in June 2021.
With the current complement of 33 meter readers, it took 28-30 working days (one and half months) to read the whole city.
“The department had intended to have read all the meters at least four times by the end of 2021.
Over and under estimations during the period meters were not read had resulted in high bills, which needed adjustment.”
The council said it was working on hiring suitable people to capacitate the department and in the future explore smart metering and on-site billing.
Meanwhile, council has said the debt owed by residents, businesses and Government departments sits at $5 005 524 671.92 as of April 2022.
According to the minutes, only two percent of consumers are paying each month.
“57 000 domestic consumers had not paid anything as of 31 March 2022.
The customer payment patterns for the year 2021 show that 2.66 percent of customers paid their accounts every month while 14.6 percent of the customers did not pay anything in 2021,” read the minutes.
“The customer payment pattern showed that most customers needed to be managed closely to ensure they paid their accounts. Domestic customers account for 60 percent of the outstanding debtors.
“Accounts 120 days and overdue were handed over to legal section for collection.
Several judgements were obtained against defaulting debtors,” reads the report.
This comes as the council had adopted a decision to index charges in foreign currency and convert these at the prevailing official exchange rate.
The move has sparked outrage with residents saying they have received shocking bills for June alone, which observers say could escalate the debt register.
The situation is worse for those who were owing as their arrears have also ballooned after being converted into forex, and they are now supposed to clear both on inflated terms.
According to a council schedule, residents from Ward 1, which covers the city centre are supposed to fork out US$110 in monthly bills, which is equivalent to about $40 000.
Those who reside in medium-density suburbs like Romney Park, Queens Park, Khumalo and Paddonhurst have to pay an average of US$70, equivalent to about $25 000 monthly.
High-density suburbs such as Barbourfields, Mzilikazi, Nguboyenja and Thorngrove Infill, including Burombo Flats, will pay US$29.34, which is equivalent to $10 000, based on last week’s Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe auction rate of US$1 is $366,26.
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