| – anticipates improved cash flowBy Sharmain CornetteGWI Chief Executive, Yuri ChandisinghAs part of a strategic turnaround plan, the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) has incorporated a new approach which will see it becoming more financially technical. This is according to the entity’s Acting Chief Executive,Wholesale Jerseys 2020, Yuri Chandisingh.He said that last year the company continued its annual one-off billing approach and by August, was able to bill 100 percent of its metered customers.Chandisingh said that this translated into GWI getting all of its revenue potentially coming in at one time.However,Cheap NHL Jerseys China, this year the company has introduced a system through which customers would be billed fortnightly thus enabling the company to have a sustained cash flow throughout the year.“Now we are able to spread our cash collection over a period which makes it more prudent to ensure our cash flows are sustained against having a one-off payment,” the Chief Executive asserted.And not only will the company’s cash flow improve but the move, according to Chandisingh, will help to instil a sense of routine into customers so that they can engage their own financial planning mechanism.In essence, he noted that the new approach “makes GWI more financially technical as we will get money coming in at regular periods, while it helps customers to plan in their minds how they will pay their utility bill knowing that they will be getting one every fortnight.”The GWI turnaround plan was introduced on February 15, 2007 and has been the significant instrument that has marshalled the company ever since.Reflecting on the genesis of the plan, Chandisingh said that it was in that very year that the management contract of Severn Trent International was terminated.Upon the termination of the contract,Soccer Jerseys From China, the Chief Executive related that the government expressed confidence in the core management team’s capacity and ability, thus allowing it to create a specialised document.The document, he said, was intended to guide the company’s action over the ensuing period and to provide the mechanism for literally turning the company around.And according to Chandisingh, “Some of the core activities enshrined in the plan that formed the basis to turn the company around included good governance and non-revenue water reduction.”To aid good governance, an Anti-Fraud Policy was created, even as GWI engaged efforts to arrest water loss through leaks and its failure to capture water use through its billing system.He recently told a press conference that the water entity is currently being driven by the need to sustain its economic viability, and is on a mission to ensure that all of its customers are metered.According to the Chief Executive “metering is integral to the reduction of non-revenue water so we have no choice but to push ahead with our meter coverage.”He said that at the end of last year,Cheap Jerseys From China, 30 percent of the GWI customers were metered. However, based on the company’s turnaround plan it is projected that 50 percent of its customers will be metered within the next two years.Metering the customers, according to Chandisingh, is of great importance, as it will encourage them to conserve thus allowing the company to utilise less energy and less chemicals for areas that get treated water. Ultimately operational cost will be reduced, the Chief Executive underscored,Stitched Jerseys, which will see an increased amount of funds being made available for capital interventions and investment.And according to him, GWI has also engaged a massive campaign aimed at collecting outstanding revenue. He related that there have been improvements in the fields, in terms of customers paying outstanding sums, even as the water entity continues to reduce its debts via write-offs and other concessions regarding those areas where many customers have not traditionally gotten a proper service.“In some areas they have not gotten any water for a period until recently, with the company’s capital investment programme kicking in, in a more substantial manner.”He noted that there are areas that are now either getting water for the first time in years or now getting an improved service.“What we are doing is looking at the period during which they were not getting a proper service and factoring that into their bills so that they will receive bills truly reflective of the service that they would have actually received as against being billed for service that they may not have received.“So in that respect we are reducing our debt so it is two-fold via write-offs and via improvement of our collection,Wholesale NFL Jerseys Authentic,” Chandisingh related.However, he pointed out that the fact remains that GWI has not in the past been reading its meters in the manner and at the intervals that is required, which has resulted in some customers receiving estimated bills over time.“We are correcting that, but there will be a few cases where customers will still be getting estimated bills. As you will very well imagine, any corrective action on our part will not bear fruit at the flick of a switch, it will take some time,” Chandisingh admitted.According to him, those customers who are now getting bills based on actual readings will no doubt be quite pleased that their current situation will eventually change in a noticeable way.He added, though, that it will take some time to move the meter-reading cycle in the manner intended to reduce the instance of estimated bills. |
