Cotswold Hills resident slapped with a US$800 council bill amid Harare’s billing woes

Diana Nherera Suburban Reporter

A Cotswold Hills resident recently received a bill equivalent to US$800 as the billing crisis in Harare deepens with a solution remaining out of sight.

A special full council meeting held on Wednesday at Town House heard that councillors were receiving numerous complaints from residents in the wards over inexplicably high bills the municipality is charging. The meeting was called to discuss the billing crisis and it emerged that the winning bidder did not meet certain undisclosed mandatory requirements, leaving the Procurement Authority of Zimbabwe (PRAZ) to request the city to restart the tender process.

This means the city’s IT and procurement officials have to restart the tender process and resubmit to PRAZ while residents continue to be slapped with high bills without enjoying the services they are being billed for.

Ward 16 Councillor Denford Ngadziore told the special council meeting that almost daily there are complaints over the City of Harare’s billing system.  He said recently a Cotswold Hills resident in Ward 16 wondered how the council had billed him the equivalent of US$800. The resident’s bill was around ZWL$12 million using the official exchange rate of US$1 to ZWL$15 000.

“He’s a pensioner and you can’t even justify (the bill).

“When I sent these things to (Mr Alfred) Guni, who is the revenue manager, they tried to justify the billing but the answer is not justifiable to the residents to the extent that this weekend I will hold a meeting (with residents and council officials),” said Cllr Ngadziore.

He said it is the council’s job to explain how that bill got to US$800.

“Even if you add the recent property valuation, a resident’s bill cannot get to US$800. It doesn’t make sense, said Cllr Ngadziore.

He said there is no progress on the procurement of a new ERP (billing system) with numerous meetings failing to resolve the matter.

“In my view, I think this is the eighth meeting that is discussing the ERP and this is the 12th Chenesa Harare meeting but Harare is not clean. So I want you to understand the level of people we are dealing with, they are sophisticated. To be honest Your Worship, there seems to be too many loopholes in the City of Harare. It looks like we have a time bomb. It seems there’s a cartel both at council level, at national level and at PRAZ. There are many criminals with regards to this system and if you fail to detect what the problem is, we will get to 2028 without a billing system, residents complaining and money being wasted,” said Cllr Ngadziore.

Councillors Blessing Duma, George Mujajati among other councillors who spoke on the matter during the meeting said they were sensing corruption and incompetence in the saga surrounding the ERP procurement. The councillors suggested that the human resources department should carry out a probe to establish the competencies of staff in the procurement department.

The councillors also suggested the establishment of a special council committee or tasking the audit committee to investigate the matter.

“This council through you can also send either a special council committee or audit committee to get to the bottom of this matter.

“After the audit, whatever the findings, they are sent to HR, otherwise people who are not HR can make emotional decisions and dismiss the procurement department including sweepers but without a solution to the ERP,” said Cllr Ngadziore.

Harare has been operating without a billing system since 2019 when the city abandoned the BIQ system following a misunderstanding with its South African supplier, Quill Associates, over pricing issues.