Billing issues are here to stay … for now
High court and criminal charges mean Mogale will have to struggle with the billing system for a while longer.
Mogale City is faced with a huge financial burden due to the implementation of a new Enterprise Resources Program (ERP), and according to some there is a dull light at the end of a very dark tunnel.
“Mogale City has successfully used the BIQ system provided by Quill and Associates for several years but subsequent to a tender process about six years ago, Mogale contracted with Lefasche, a black empowerment company, to install and commission a new system (Limms).
“Lefasche could not complete the process, despite having been paid by Mogale City, and a new contractor had to be found to complete the task,” Dennis Pretorius, financial spokesperson for the Democratic Alliance in Mogale City, told the News.
Mogale City then stopped paying Quill the required licence fees but continued using their software. Quill then successfully sued Mogale City, he said.
“Mogale has to allow [the owners of the BIQ billing system] access to remove it from their possession,” Judge Venter ruled in the Pretoria High Court in 2014. Mogale had to pay the arrears licence fees of approximately R10 million to Quill Associates.
Now, more than a year later Danie van Heerden, owner of the BIQ system, has agreed to let Mogale City Municipality keep the system until June 2016 so that they can sort out the technical difficulties Mogale has with the new billing system (Limms).
This is costing taxpayers about R3 million above the estimated R50 million that the new systems has cost to date – and it is not yet the end.
“Mogale obtained Limms, which is a system made up of components from different companies, five years ago. They have been trying to get it to work since then,” Pretorius said.
He is concerned that Limms might take very long to finally work. This could mean the problems residents of Mogale City are currently facing with their accounts, could last quite a while longer. The Limms System went live in Mogale City in November and was unable to handle the data and produce reports – Mogale had to revert to the old BIQ system.
Quill and Associates also sued Westonaria and Randfontein Municipalities on the same charges.
It is understood that Quill and Associates have filed criminal charges against Mogale City’s Chief Operating Officer and a Computer Programmer in the employ of Mogale City.
Related articles:
• Mogale City to cough up R15m for wrongful claim
• Mogale using a new billing system
• Mogale accounts a R50 million mess
