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200 000 undepay as Zesa meters not read

02 Mar, 2018 - 07:03 0 Views
200 000 undepay as Zesa meters not read

eBusiness Weekly

Some haven’t paid for electricity since 1984

Auditor–General calls for an investigation

Martin Kadzere
The Auditor General has called for an investigation into why more than 200 000 electricity users have gone for as long as 33 years consuming electricity effectively free of charge.

Some of the electricity meters were not recorded from as far back as 1984, costing the power utility millions in potential revenue and in contravention to the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company’s policy which requires actual readings on all electricity meters at least once in three months.

Some clients’ meters took up close to 1 000 days before their readings were taken. According to the AG’s latest audited report for State enterprises, some domestic customers, including Zesa staff had negative bills amounting to $60 million at the end of 2015.

For instance, one domestic customer, whose identity was not provided, had a “valid” negative bill of about $3 million with real electricity usage of over 19 million units. The last actual meter reading was done at installation in 2012. The customer’s bills were estimated for three years and were migrated to the 3E prepayment system.

The AG noted the power utility could have suffered a huge “financial loss due to under billing.”

According to the report, 191 162 meters were not read in 2015 alone, 15 782 meters in 2014, 7 372 meters in 2013, 2 795 meters in 2012 and 1 861 meters in 2011.

“That the figures increase year by year is a matter of concern and corrective action really needs to be taken,” a Harare based fraud and a financial crime consultant said.

The AG observed that some meters were last recorded in 1984, 1991 and 2005 while 333 ZESA employees had negative energy bills amounting to $27 289 by the end of 2015.

In response, ZETDC said the negative bill could have arisen due to negative consumption caused by estimated readings, which will be higher than the actual readings.

According to the utility company, the system detected the over charge when actual reading were provided, automatically giving the affected customers credit.

The huge credit bill is as a result of the long period the meter was being overestimated.

Management however vowed to ensure all meters have actual readings taken at least once in three months to avoid estimated readings higher than actual meter readings.

The problem is expected to be eliminated once installation of pre-paid meters is completed.

The AG said “customers accounts with negative bills should be investigated and adjustments done where necessary.” Last year, the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority said ZESA should enhance revenue collection mechanism before asking for a tariff hike.

Previously, concerns have also been raised over illegal connections, prejudicing the utility substantial revenues.

The AG also noted that some faults were taking longer than stipulated time in the Client Service Charter to be attended to.

There were several cases where faults took longer to be attended to throughout the regions.

The Client Charter requires the company to take not more than 30 working days to connect customers who would have paid their connection fees.

However, the company is taking more than 30 working days in violation of the Client Charter.

The Eastern region alone had about 360 customers who paid their connection fees before the beginning of 2017, but were not yet connected by the end of the year.

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