ERB’s alternative complaints handling avenues

Wed, 15 Mar 2017 12:34:43 +0000

By Fred Hang’andu

As the regulator for the energy sector in Zambia, the Energy Regulation Board (ERB) is mandated to receive and investigate complaints from energy consumers, licencees and other stakeholders.

This is an important function of the ERB given the power that licencees inherently wield over consumers. Regulation is primarily there to ensure that the interests of consumers and those of licencees are safeguarded. Thus, licencees must be able to earn a reasonable rate of return on their investment, while at the same time consumers deserve to access energy products and services that meet the minimum standards set by the ERB. To that end, the ERB has since inception close to 20 years ago established channels through which complaints can be lodged to the regulator. Those channels have been spelt out in the ERB Complaints Procedure to guide consumers on how to go about lodging a complaint to the regulator. The main channels for lodging complaints to the ERB have traditionally included letters, emails, phone calls, facsimile and visits to ERB offices.

Those established channels have for the larger part helped many consumers to engage with the ERB whenever they have faced challenges. However, over time, the ERB has evaluated its accessibility to the public with a view to improving. The evaluation has been both formal and informal. Formally, the ERB has conducted surveys and obtained feedback through community meetings in various parts of the country. Further, more recently the ERB also conducted a Perception Study to gauge the public perception of the regulator.

From the evaluation of the effectiveness of the available channels, it was felt that the avenues available to consumers and other stakeholders for lodging complaints needed to be enhanced. Therefore, the ERB determined that it needed to spread its regulatory footprint to reach out to more consumers. For a start, the ERB engaged a fellow regulator the National Water Supply and Sanitation Council (NWASCO) in 2005. NWASCO had pioneered an initiative to use volunteers to work as its agents to receive and investigate complaints and also sensitise the community. The initiative was initially called Water Watch Groups. At the same time, the forerunner to the Zambia Information and Communication Technology (ZICTA) had expressed similar interest.

Following discussions among the three regulators, the Consumer Watch Groups (CWGs) were born to cater for water supply and sanitation, energy and information and communication technologies consumers. The alliance lasted for three years until 2009. Having gathered enough lessons on how to run the initiative, the ERB reconstituted the CWGs to handle energy complaints only. Under ERB, the CWGs were spread out to cover all 10 provincial centres and five other strategic districts namely Kitwe, Livingstone, Kaoma, Mazabuka and Chingola.

In terms of impact, the introduction of CWGs almost immediately saw the number of complaints reported to the ERB increase by a minimum of 150%. This was because the volunteer groups being present at the community level are able to engage consumers more directly and frequently. It should be noted that this initiative is supported by the ERB with office space and funding, fully. Further, it has been observed that consumers felt more comfortable to engage CWGs because they are members of the community. As a result of their efforts at community level, some CWGs were even co-opted into the Resident Development Committees. Furthermore, the initiative has attracted the interest of other energy regulatory agencies in countries such as Ghana, Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania and Mozambique, among others.

However, the initiative has not come without challenges. The ERB has had to deal with misapplication of funds by CWGs on a number of occasions.

As the number of energy consumers kept increasing, the ERB had to devise other innovations to enhance its accessibility. Therefore, the idea of a Mobile Office was born in 2012. With the positive feedback from the CWGs, it was felt that there was still need to reach out to more consumers to allow more consumers lodge complaints. It had been observed that some of the major hindrances to consumers lodging complaints were lack of awareness and the costs associated with pursuing a complaint.  It should be noted that social media and community media were just taking root in Zambia at the time. Therefore, it had become common that complaints were voiced out through the media and not through the established channels. Considering that most energy complaints require that details of a complainant are available to enable the ERB to follow up with the licencee, it became necessary to go out to the community more regularly. The Mobile Office, a fit-for-purpose vehicle, was deemed to be the most appropriate avenue through which to reach various communities. This is because it can go out to different parts of the country.

Thus, the Mobile Office has since 2013 been used to sensitise consumers at markets, bus stations, shopping malls, traditional ceremonies and schools to sensitise consumers and receive complaints. This has seen the level of awareness on the ERB increase among ordinary consumers. Principally, the Mobile Office has allowed consumers with complaints to save on time and resources, which they would have spent if they had to go to ERB offices. On the other hand, the initiative has enabled the ERB to reach various remote districts of the country where the regulator has no physical presence.

Even with the Mobile Office, ERB recognized that the energy consumer had become more sophisticated particularly with the reported marked increase in the use of mobile phones. Therefore, the ERB had to come up with new innovations to reach out to the modern consumer. It had been realized that with the increased level of awareness owing to recent outreach innovations, there was need to offer consumers more alternatives. Therefore, it was determined that there was need to establish a Toll Free Line (TFL) to allow consumers to engage the ERB at no cost to themselves.

Thus, in November 2014 the ERB launched the TFL with the short code 8080. The TFL has allowed consumers to call the ERB to lodge a complaint through Airtel and MTN numbers at no cost. This has enabled consumers from as far as Kaputa, Nchelenge, Chama, Zambezi and Chivuna to call the ERB. However, the facility has also been subjected to abuse with some callers knowing that it is free, have used the line to talk about matters unrelated to energy. As unwanted calls still attract charges the ERB changed the short code to 8484 in May 2016. The change has seen the facility operate more efficiently as the number of unwanted calls has drastically reduced.

In conclusion, the ERB shall continue to innovate new ways through which to easily reach out to consumers. Further, recognising the nature of the relationship between licencee and consumer, the ERB appreciates the increasing need for consumer protection while still being committed to upholding the interests of licencees. Therefore, the regulator shall continue to make itself as accessible as possible for engagement with all stakeholders. It is hoped that with all the avenues now available to consumers and licencees for lodging complaints, aggrieved parties can channel their grievances to the ERB through any one of the avenues they may prefer.

 – The author is Senior Manager – Consumer & Public Affairs at the Energy Regulation Board.