Billing and Collection of Water and Sewer Service Charges January 2003

Billing and Collection of Water and Sewer Service Charges - January 2003

Billing and Collection of Water and Sewer Service Charges

Released: January 2003

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This audit was the second of three planned performance audits of United Water Service Unlimited Atlanta's completion of contractual obligations to the City of Atlanta. The company was contracted by the City of Atlanta in 1999 to provide water and billing services for the city for twenty years.

We found that United Water:

Rarely terminated service on delinquent accounts.
Had a collection rate of 95 percent between January 1999 and August 2002, short of the 98.5 percent collection rate required by the contract.
Collected at least $23.7 million less than the required amount, increasing the accounts receivable balance by 142 percent from $23.8 million to $57.5 million.
Took an average of 93 days to collect on each billed account and had no system for imposing late fees on delinquent accounts.