RA Site Visits Introduced by Zimbabwe’s Electricity Supplier

The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) has established a Revenue Assurance Department that will inspect customer sites in order to counter power thieves. These steps are being executed in parallel to the deployment of 300,000 smart meters.

Telecoms fraud managers will see some analogies between the crime suffered by ZESA and the way fraudsters attack telcos. On one side, there is tampering with equipment at the edge of the network. A ZESA spokesman claimed they had identified 4000 properties in Harare where prepaid meters had been bypassed, allowing customers to receive electricity for free. On the other side, some crime involves staff collusion. Zimbabwe’s Herald reports that:

…a cartel of Zesa employees was clandestinely cancelling mega-bills of electricity users still on the post-paid billing system in exchange for a few hundred US dollars. After cancelling the bills, they then install pre-paid meters without Zesa’s knowledge. For this, they are paid between US$300 and US$600 by electricity users who want their huge bills cancelled.

You can read more about this story at The Herald.

Eric Priezkalns
Eric Priezkalnshttp://revenueprotect.com

Eric is the Editor of Commsrisk. Look here for more about the history of Commsrisk and the role played by Eric.

Eric is also the Chief Executive of the Risk & Assurance Group (RAG), an association of professionals working in risk management and business assurance for communications providers. RAG was founded in 2003 and Eric was appointed CEO in 2016.

Previously Eric was Director of Risk Management for Qatar Telecom and he has worked with Cable & Wireless, T‑Mobile, Sky, Worldcom and other telcos. He was lead author of Revenue Assurance: Expert Opinions for Communications Providers, published by CRC Press.

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