From Deficit to Surplus: Turning a Utility Department Around Using a Management Process Audit

Facing a $4 million combined account deficit in its water and sewer departments, the City of Quincy, Massachusetts performed an end-to-end audit of all systems, procedures, and personnel assignments from financial, managerial, organizational, and technical standpoints. The audits started with the review of the master water meters receiving water from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority and ended with a revised abatement policy. Quincy executed a programmatic approach to modifying the manner in which it conducted business as sewer and water service providers, and increased the level of service to their customers; streamlined formerly cumbersome meter reading, data entry, and billing processes; and reduced its unaccounted-for water percentage and peak I/I flows. As a result, Quincy erased the projected deficit in one fiscal year, anticipating a surplus of $1 million. This situation is very common in municipalities across the country. Time constraints and budgetary concerns rarely allow for an overhaul of systems and processes. In this way, issues that may seem small when they first appear are allowed to snowball and become systemic problems across many of the utilities functions. The results achieved by Quincy in performing this audit and implementing changes based on the findings demonstrate the power of investing in comprehensive review of these processes and using a proactive and programmatic approach to bringing success to the municipally run utility. Source: WEFTEC 2009 Proceedings