Time up for billing estimates

THE ongoing transition to paperless transactions and data capturing by Mutare City Council is expected to bring sanity to the billing system where estimated figures are giving residents sleepless nights.

With the highest number of module uptake, City of Mutare is setting the pace countrywide in the transition to paperless transactions and data capturing under a Local Authorities Digital Systems (LADS) programme which is being implemented in partnership with the Harare Institute of Technology.

The water meter reading module is being developed and is already under a test run.

Under this initiative, the water meter reading module will take coordinates GPS of each and every property as officers take meter readings, with the information being transmitted to the local authority’s main server.

Ratepayers in most parts of the city are currently up in arms with the local authority over exorbitant bills as a result of the estimate billing system that was at times being used by the local authority’s meter readers.

However, this is expected to end with the introduction of the digital surveillance mechanism.

City of Mutare’s acting finance director, Mr Reuben Guni said, “We are excited about the latest development in the transition to paperless transactions. It has improved our revenue collection significantly and it has also helped to instil some accountability on the part of our officers on the ground.

“For example, we had water billing being done under a tree by some meter readers who did not want to go door-todoor doing their work. The new system will ensure that meter readers, as they move around on each and every property to do proper meter reading, the gadget will take the coordinates of GPS every property and information will be transmitted to our main server at council. This will not allow estimated figures to be pumped into the system, one has to be on the ground,” said Mr Guni.

City of Mutare’s assistant housing and community services director, Mr Noel Mushangwe said: “In our department, we now have seven modules that cover, among other things, the residential stands waiting list, stands allocation, lease tracking, property data base, cemetery management, markets management and the file movement module.

“The introduction of has shown LADS us that a number of irregularities will be solved. This includes the issue of space barons. In fact, when we were doing the test runs, we actually noticed a number of beneficiaries of stalls with more than one table. The system automatically detects that.

“One of the greatest challenges we have always had is that of accountability and actually addresses this LADS in a major way. Some leases would have expired and remained unknown to us because no tracking system was available. Most of our modules in our department are now 100 percent functional,” he said.

is an Enterprise Resource Planning LADS (ERP) System tailor-made for Zimbabwean local authorities.

Its purpose is to improve the operations, efficiency, accountability and competence of local authorities.