BCC considers blacklisting debtors

THE Bulawayo City Council is reportedly considering blacklisting some of its bad debtors as it continues to explore avenues of boosting revenue collection.

The move comes as the city's debtors continue to rise after service debtors to the city rose from $45 billion to $51 billion as at the end of April. According to a council report, for the month of April 2023, $2.9 billion (61 percent) of the total receipts from billed accounts) was received from domestic ratepayers whilst $1.9 billion (39 percent) of the total receipts from billed accounts was from non-domestic ratepayers.

The local authority is under pressure from its workers who are demanding part of their salaries in hard currency while all suppliers have also been insisting on being paid in foreign currency, a situation that is reportedly hindering service delivery in the city.

As part of measures of enhancing foreign currency generation in the city, the local authority early this month came up with a cocktail of measures, among them the reintroduction of the "khothama boutique" (Revenue Hall flea market), with those interested being mandated to paying for the stalls in foreign currency. According to a council confidential report, the local authority is also considering reporting bad debtors to the credit bureau.

"In the medium term the local authority may consider blacklisting bad debtors in liaison with the credit bureau. Crafting of a policy on blacklisting and also the database cleaning of deceased estates that have not been wound up, this would all help in reducing debtors default rate. The local authority also may pilot prepaid metering in the city centre and low-density areas with expressions of interest already being considered.

"The pros of this are that it will see the reduction of debt management costs while cons are that consumers may buy large stock of water in advance and ignore paying rates and other services fees for as long as they have water tokens and in case of stockpiling water tokens, council may not be able to enforce payment through service restriction," reads the report.

The local authority is also considering invoking the Derelict Land Act every quarter for properties owing for over 60 months.

"The City is also considering crafting of a policy on prepayment of bills, to promote prepayment of accounts and exempt prepaid accounts from tariff debasing provided they don't overuse water. Pilot was tested with ZITF. This can be targeted to government institutions or schools who get termly income.

"The advantage of this is that council will get payments in advance and reduction of debt management costs while the disadvantage will be that there will be a lot of adjustments in the system and should a majority of consumers take up the offer council might end up failing to meet expenses due to exchange rate movements," reads the report.

According to the report, the local authority is also considering mandatory stop order for all council staff members, noting that this will ensure that all properties owned or leased by staff members are maintained up to date.