Living with user error in the 21st Century
Am I the only South African who cannot believe the inefficiency of local municipalities in billing their customers? Given the power of modern day computer systems and the sheer variety of applications for cellular network-linked devices the generation of
The technology exists to implement such a system today. And the advantages are too numerous to mention. First, we eliminate the “finger error” which occurs when the meter reader visits the client site. Second, we eliminate the “estimation error” which occurs due to the sheer impossibility of getting a meter reader to every single location countrywide. And third, we eliminate the massive loss to local municipalities through the brazen theft of water and power… A properly implemented system would then free up thousands of man hours to be applied to the rendering of more sensible services. It would link directly to an automated billing system and be able to warn account payers of account arrears and imminent disconnections. Over time information from the system could be used to “sniff out” unusually high accounts, perhaps catching industrial users in residential areas or tracking down major water leaks etc.
If only we could implement such a system
The big question is why South African municipalities don’t have such systems in place almost two decades after democracy. I reckon we’re going to have to blame Apartheid – because if it wasn’t for Apartheid we wouldn’t be doing business in a world where restitution trumps commonsense. We would appoint town engineers and town planners on their ability to do the job rather on than their political affiliation. And we would award contracts for information technology and related systems implementation to companies with the ability to deliver on their promise… Likewise the companies who eventually win the tender to implement said system would be able to rely on employees with the appropriate level of skill to deliver, rather than fleshing out their workforce to represent the regional (or national as the department of labour refers) demographic.
We have vastly underestimated the long-term impact of BEE and Employment Equity legislation on South Africa’s productivity. I recall reading that the Johannesburg Municipality recently spend R500 million on improving its billing systems, clearly the equivalent of flushing half-a-billion rand down the drain. And Home Affairs has been pouring funds down the gutter too. We have inherited a country where projects cost five or 10 (my number) times more than they should – and deliver only a fraction of what they promise. To make matters worse, what they promise hasn’t been properly thought through. At every step of the way people with the wrong skills are making decisions with double and triple-tax implications for the local taxpayer. You pay for rates and services – which are hiked to pay for a system that is poorly implemented – and then you get a bill which doesn’t reflect your usage – and have to take two or three days off work to try and sort it out. You lose money at every point in the process.
A closer look at WAIO – or should that be WTF!
I might sound like a madman having a bit of a rant – but you need only look at the Who Am I Online (WAIO) project being implemented for Home Affairs by local (and politically connected) IT company Gijima AST. According to the Democratic Alliance government has already paid R400 million towards the project and will pay an undisclosed further settlement despite the contract:
· Being awarded under circumstances that have been the subject of two forensic audits, both shrouded in secrecy, and
· Has not delivered any measurable result to date...
Gijima won the contract tender in 2007. After starting work on the project – and receiving R400 million for its efforts – the group received a letter from Home Affairs in April 2009 stating the contract was being cancelled as it hadn’t been signed by the appropriate representatives and therefore invalid… (Nobody mentions how Home Affairs paid R400 million for services rendered to date on an invalid contract). They also accused Gijima of failing on key deliverables… But forget this dispute! My principal concern is that R2.5 billion for an Internet enabled data application sounds ridiculously expensive – just as bad as the R500 million paid for a billing system in Johannesburg… These amounts become even more unbearable when you factor in that neither system actually works!
Political greed and private sector “shoulder shrugging” to blame
Political greed, cadre deployment and a definite lack of accountability at private sector firms is to blame for this mess. Projects are being conjured up by individuals without the skills to conceive their long-term effect – companies with inappropriate skills are winning tenders thanks to their political connections – and private sector firms are making an absolute killing as they work on elements of huge systems which have no hope of ever being pulled together. The private sector is earning billions from governments planning inefficiencies, which in my mind makes them as much to blame as the inept politicians.
Editor’s thoughts: I reckon a team of bright university students on a shoe-string budget could have conceived and implemented a workable IT billing system for local municipalities. Likewise – a small core of IT professionals could have implemented the most ambitious Home Affairs project for a fraction of the R2.5 billion tender recently awarded. Why are we going ahead with overpriced and ill-thought information technology (and other infrastructure) projects? Add your comment below, or send it to gareth@fanews.co.za
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