1,529 Customers Have Not Paid Water Bills, South Sumatra OKU PDAM Collaborates With The Prosecutor's Office To Help Collection

PDAM OKU continues to cooperate with the prosecutor's office in terms of optimizing the collection of clean water arrears, Thursday. (ANTARA/Edo Purmana/23)

OKU - PDAM Tirta Raja, Ogan Komering Ulu (OKU) Regency, South Sumatra, collaborated with the local District Attorney's Office (Kejari) in an effort to reduce the number of customer arrears reaching Rp2.5 billion. PDAM Director Tirta Raja OKU Abi Kusno explained that the number of arrears came from 1,529 customers who were in arrears in paying clean water bills to companies owned by the area. To reduce the arrears, his party cooperates with the OKU Kejari to assist in billing fees so that the company does not lose money. "Actually, this collaboration is a follow-up to the previous MoU to be resumed," he said in Baturaja, as reported by Antara, Thursday, October 12. According to Abi, the previous collaboration showed significant results in which it succeeded in increasing local revenue (PAD) from clean water arrears paid by residents with a figure of Rp1.8 billion. "This ongoing cooperation can continue to be carried out because it has a positive impact, especially in terms of increasing the PAD of OKU Regency," he said. Meanwhile, the Head of the OKU Prosecutor's Office Choirun Parapat through Kasi Datun Ajie Marta said that the MoU was followed up with the issuance of a Special Power of Attorney (SKK) from PDAM Director Tirta Raja to the prosecutor's office. According to Ajie, so far there are thousands of PDAM Tirta Raja customers who are in arrears in paying clean water bills with total arrears reaching billions of rupiah. Related to this, his party has sent a summons to customers who are in arrears of bill payments as a warning to immediately pay their obligations. The summons to the prosecutor's office which was sent directly to residents' homes since the end of June 2023 are for customers who are in arrears of more than three months with a total bill of more than Rp. 1 million. According to him, this summons is quite a good impact where many people pay for clean water bills at the local PDAM.

"However, if customers have not been able to pay, they can coordinate directly with PDAM according to the policies of the regional-owned company," he said.