EDITOR – The Democratic Alliance in eThekwini had rejected a proposal to award a lucrative ‘electronic bill presentment and payment solution’ to Ithala Connect.
The contract will cost R8 800 000 to implement, and has a monthly management cost of R744 600. The total amount comes to R35 605 600 over a three year period.
The DA is concerned that electronic bill presentation and payments should have been covered by the Revenue Management System, which has cost in the region of a billion rand and run hugely over schedule. Billing problems abound in the city, with many hundreds of consumers having irregular and extortionate bills. A system that has cost a billion rand should surely have been able to accommodate the electronic presentment and payment of bills.
If there was a need for this kind of system, the most logical idea would have been to put this out to tender and give businesses in this industry an opportunity to present their offer. Competition generally reduces costs, which is vital when dealing with public money. Instead, the city had used a provision of the Municipal Financial Management Act to appoint a state-owned entity without using a tender process.
Ithala is neither known for efficiency nor innovation, but has seemingly become the first choice for the state and its political affiliates. There are a number of companies that could do this work, but the city’s automatic use of Ithala is suspicious.
The DA rejects this request. The public cannot continually be requested to dole out money to fix the city’s billing problems. To automatically award such a lucrative contract to Ithala, at a very high cost, is poor governance and frivolous use of public money.
Councillor Nicole Graham
Durban
