Office of the City Auditor

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Issued: January 2004

SUMMARY

This audit is one of a series of audits conducted by the Office of the City Auditor (OCA) in calendar year (CY) 2003 designed to review the optimization of revenue. This particular audit was a part of OCA’s approved CY 2003 service plan that assessed the completeness and timeliness of the billing of the anti-litter service (ALS) fee via the City’s billing system of record, the Customer Information System (CIS).

We found that billing for the ALS for eligible accounts connected from October 1999 through September 2003 was neither complete nor timely for some accounts. Our analysis indicates that estimated unbilled fees resulting from not billing or late initiation of billing for some eligible accounts for the ALS fee is over $211,000. We did not include in our analysis estimates of the amount of unbilled revenue resulting from currently inactive accounts. Inactive accounts include those that were connected during the period, but were also disconnected or closed during the period. For this reason, the amount of total unbilled revenue is likely understated.

Contributing to the non-billing and late billing of customer accounts for the ALS is the fact that a billing system conversion to the CIS in October 1999 dictated significant process changes in the billing of the fee, which were not made in a timely manner by responsible City departments. Delays in making necessary process changes, including the development of more manual account identification and billing initiation procedures, has led to problems identifying and initiating billing for some ALS customers. In August 2002, personnel of the Solid Waste Services Department (SWS), who are responsible for administering the antilitter service fee, implemented improved procedures to identify and bill ALS customers. Since that time, data indicates that billing timeliness for the ALS fee has improved.

Though process changes have improved ALS billing, continued communication is needed between Austin Energy (AE) and SWS to ensure billing improvements continue. Specifically, increased sharing of technical and administrative expertise is warranted. Also, the data housed within the CIS, particularly the information related to account jurisdictions, needs improvement.

We have included two recommendations directed to SWS and AE intended to accomplish the following:

• Improve the ability of SWS and AE personnel to systematically identify and initiate timely billing for residential and commercial utility customers eligible for the City’s anti-litter service and the corresponding fee; and
• Address the resolution of any unbilled ALS fees for both active and inactive accounts by working with City management to implement a plan in line with requirements set forth in the City Code.