Delays and errors prevention: water meter reading and policy making

Introduction

Clean water is very important among people in order to live healthy. People used the
water as means to their drinking water as well as used to wash necessities. The Water
District of Calamba is one of the provider of quality and clean water among the resident
of the Calamba, Laguna. Customers applied for the water connection and each of the
customers have their own account and meter where the usage of their water has been
measured.

The Department of billing and meter reading of the Calamba Water District is the
responsible department for the receive and possession of the bills as well as
responsible in reading the meter of the customers to be submitted in the billing section
for computation and issuance of customers’ bills. The problem in this section is the
manual reading of the meter of the customers which sometimes lead to errors on the
reading or sometimes customers are complaining that they do not receive any bills. In
other words, the problem exists in the billing and meter reading department for lack of
organized schedule and organized procedure.

This disorganization in the procedure of the department is about lack of policy and lack
of improvement in the public organization. Policies plays a vital role in the uniformity and
centralized of the organization as a whole. A public services provider must adhere with
the policy management. If an organization equip their employees with the necessary
tools in order to proactively adhere to the standards, it saves the whole organization and
the department from any consequences. There are various problems that may be
encountered in the policy management such outdated processes, lack of accountability
and lack of management in document life cycle. The absence of good policy in the
management system can easily crack the organization into pieces. Communication,
collaboration and secure system are very important to rule and guide the behaviors of
the employees. Without policy, they just do what they want and not what is right (Power
DMS, 2020). Challenges in the implementation of the policy includes lack of clarity of
the goals of the organization, lack of information intelligence and lack of strategic
planning (PSU, n.d).

Accountability plays a vital role in the successful management of human power.

Accountability pertains to the act of taking responsibility for the work being entrusted by
the organization and being held responsible when there is a lapses or negligence
happened. Being aware and knowledgeable about the existence of the concept of
accountability is a great help to have an organized and well-structured organization.
Accountability is the fuel towards success of the organization because it highlights the
organization’s mission, values and goals through the responsible employees who work
in the organization. There are various benefits of having accountability in the workplace
such as building trust with the co-employees, improving performance by being
responsible and productive, it strengthen the culture of the organization and they are
helping the organization to become more efficient and competent (Power DMS, 2020).

One of the function of the public administration is making of effective public policy and
policy implementation. Public administration is a profession that can defined as making
of public programs, projects and policy. They engage in making of policy decisions
based on the existing legal entities and theoretical framework in order to solve conflicts
and issues. Their expertise in administrative and legal procedures can help them to
suggest a ways to manage and enforce laws (Raipa, A. 2002). Therefore, this problem
of lack of policy is related to the discipline of public administration due to the fact the
public administration can help the organization to solve their problem.

Background

The organization of this project paper is the Calamba Water District. This is a water
provider and supplier in the city of Calamba Laguna. The mandate of this organization is
to uphold the institution principles embodied in its vision, mission and its core values.
Their mission is to ensure that all the resident of Calamba Laguna will have sufficient
supply of potable water 24/7 along with its commitment to establish sewerage and
septage management system as part of their environmental concern. Their vision is to
become the highest quality water supplier that ensures customer satisfaction by
providing a high quality of water in an affordable cost. Their core values includes
knowledgeability, dedication, commitment, loyalty, integrity and simple living (Calamba
Water District, n.d).

The problem about the lack of policy leading to delays, errors and absence of the water
meter bills can lead to customer’s complains and worst, it can lead to losing of
customers in the process of irresponsibility. The bills of the customers shall be at all
times correct and free of error as well as must be in time because it is a matter of
financial aspects. Customers are also complaining that they are being immediately
disconnected from water supply due to unpaid bills when in fact they did not received
any bills. Thus, if these problem can be resolved, there will be a reduce amount of
complains from the customers and the vision of the organization could be achieve which
is about giving customers a satisfactory services.

Implementation strategy

The involved organization in this problem is the Calamba Water District particularly the
meter reading and billing section. They are responsible in the conduct of meter reading
and dissemination of bills. Therefore, they must have an organized procedural plan and
implementation as well as policy in the organization to prevent the delays and errors in
the bills.

The employees must be divided into two groups which are meter reading group and the
bills disseminator. The meter reading group shall be scheduled alternately in order for
them not to be extremely exhausted for being everyday in the street while the bills
disseminator must have a scheduled time to disseminate the bills as well. The meter
reading must be manually double check and it should also be documented properly (eg.
Take a picture of the meter in order to have a supporting proof of the actual bill). The
bills must be submitted immediately to the billing section in order to input into the
system without delays. It must be supported by the document or photos in order to
ensure that the bill meter has been correctly read.

The disseminator of the bills must be physically and virtually send the copies of bills to
the designated customer’s address. There are customers who preferred to receive the
physical copy of the bills rather than the electronic copy reason why the disseminator
must still go to the address of the customers to disseminate the bills copy not later than
the due date. The bills must be disseminate in the bracket time. There must be a policy
to implement with regards to the number of bills to be disseminated each day. For
example, there should be a 10 customer bills to be successfully disseminated each day
otherwise, the employee disseminator will face an accountability unless there is a valid
reason. Aside from the physical copy of the bills, it must also have an electronic copy or
SMS to the customers in order for them to be informed.

Every works must be done with accountability in order to rule the employees to
accomplish their task with just and on time. The policy must have an accountability.
Each errors and delays in the task of the employee must have an equivalent sanction or
demerits. With this, it will prevent the negligence on their part and they will force to
perform task with care and accuracy. Scheduled must be strictly followed. The
organization should implement a reward system for those employees who will be able to
fulfill their task with accuracy and on time. Otherwise, punishment shall be received.
Reward system does not only effective and must be manage in private sector but also in
the public sector because it helps to increased productivity and motivate the employees
to work better and avoid errors (McNoughton, S. 2012).
References

Power DMS (2020, December 23). Top 5 policy management problems, and their
solutions. Retrieved from: https://www.powerdms.com/policy-learning-center/five-policy-
management-problems-and-their-solutions

Power DMS (2020, December 22). Why Is Accountability Important in the Workplace?
Retrieved from: https://www.powerdms.com/policy-learning-center/why-is-
accountability-important-in-the-workplace

PSU (n.d). Challenges and Pitfalls of Policy Implementation. Retrieved from:

https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/welcome/plsc490/lesson05_06.html

Raipa, A. (2002).

Public Policy and Public Administration: Development, Structure and Reciprocity.

Retrieved from: https://ojs.mruni.eu/ojs/public-policy-and-administration/article/view/
2543

Calamba Water District (n.d). Mandate, Mission and Vision. Retrieved from:
https://cwd.com.ph/mission_vision.html

McNaughton, S. (2012, February 06). REWARD AND RECOGNITION IN THE PUBLIC

SERVICE – A SYSTEM IN NEED OF REFORM. Retrieved from:
https://www.govloop.com/community/blog/reward-and-recognition-in-the-public-service-
a-system-in-need-of-reform/