CAO-06-26-Commercial Expert – Independent Verification of Water Utility Performance

CAO-06-26-Commercial Expert – Independent Verification of Water Utility Performance

We are seeking a Commercial Expert to join a consulting firm’s proposal for an international technical assistance assignment in the urban and peri-urban water supply sector in Lusophone Africa.

The assignment will consist of providing independent performance verification services for operators and technical assistance teams supporting public water utilities. The objective will be to verify baselines, contractual performance indicators, commercial data quality, billing, collection, customer service, user management and overall commercial performance of utilities, and to issue independent reports that may serve as the basis for assessing contractual compliance and results-based payments.

Position

Commercial Expert – Independent Verification Agent

Main responsibilities

The Commercial Expert will be responsible for the review, validation and verification of commercial and administrative indicators of water utilities. Responsibilities will include:

• Verifying indicators related to customer cadastre, active connections, customer metering, billing, collection, arrears, revenues, customer service, complaints and commercial management.
• Participating in the definition and implementation of the performance verification protocol.
• Contributing to the establishment of commercial baselines and the validation of commercial improvement targets.
• Reviewing customer databases, billing records, collection reports, debt lists, meter information, service contracts, complaint records and other available commercial documentation.
• Assessing the reliability, sufficiency and traceability of commercial data used to measure compliance with indicators.
• Identifying discrepancies, inconsistencies or limitations in the commercial information reported by operators or technical assistance teams.
• Carrying out field checks, random verifications and cross-checking commercial information against physical or documentary evidence.
• Contributing to quarterly reports, annual reports, baseline reports and ad hoc reports.
• Analysing the relationship between commercial performance, cost recovery, financial sustainability and service quality.
• Coordinating with the Project Manager and with the technical and financial experts to ensure an integrated verification of performance.

Mandatory minimum requirements

Only candidates who clearly demonstrate compliance with all the following requirements will be considered:

• University degree in economics, business administration, engineering, finance, commercial management, public utility management, water/sanitation or a related discipline.
• At least 5 years of professional experience in similar assignments, related to commercial management, administration, operational improvement, commercial auditing, assessment of utilities or technical assistance to water operators.
• Proven experience in commercial and administrative management of water utilities.
• Specific experience in assessing or verifying commercial indicators, including at least several of the following areas: customer cadastre, connections, customer metering, meter reading, billing, collection, revenue management, arrears, debt, customer service, complaints, customer regularisation or updating of commercial databases.
• Experience reviewing and validating commercial data from utilities with incomplete information, low customer metering coverage, weak commercial systems or limited documentary traceability.
• Practical experience in verifying commercial results, cross-checking records, reviewing databases and analysing consistency of information.
• Experience in projects in developing countries, preferably in Sub-Saharan Africa or comparable institutional contexts.
• Ability to prepare clear, traceable and defensible commercial inputs for institutional reports.
• Experience working within multidisciplinary teams with engineering, financial auditing and contractual management components.
• Professional Portuguese, spoken and written, is mandatory.
• Professional English, spoken and written, is mandatory.

Experience considered an asset

The following experience will be considered a strong asset:

• Projects financed by multilateral organisations or international financing institutions.
• Management, operation and maintenance contracts for water services.
• Performance-based contracts or contracts with payments linked to commercial indicators.
• Commercial auditing or independent verification of water utilities.
• Definition of commercial baselines, KPIs, measurement methodologies and validation protocols.
• Assessment of programmes for billing improvement, collection increase, arrears reduction, customer cadastre updating, customer regularisation campaigns or improvement of customer service.
• Work in utilities with limited commercial systems, partial absence of customer metering, inconsistent data, estimated billing or low payment culture.
• Review of commercial software, customer databases, meter reading processes, invoice issuance, revenue collection, debt management and complaint handling.
• Support to commercial benchmarking processes and comparative assessment of water operators.
• Participation in institutional strengthening programmes or technical assistance assignments for public water utilities.

Profile sought

We are looking for a senior commercial profile with real experience in water utilities and the ability to audit the commercial performance of an operator under imperfect information conditions. This is not a generic administrative role: the selected expert must be able to verify commercial results, challenge data, cross-check evidence and issue independent judgements on the quality and reliability of reported information.

Generic applications will be disregarded if they do not demonstrate specific experience in commercial management of water utilities, commercial auditing, indicator verification, performance assessment or technical assistance to operators.

Location and working arrangements

The assignment will combine home-office activities with periodic field missions in a Lusophone African country. The expected duration of the contract is multi-year.

Application documents

Interested candidates must submit:

• CV in World Bank format, in English.
• Brief indication of availability.
• List of similar projects, indicating country, client, dates, role performed and specific relevance to water utilities, commercial management, commercial auditing, performance verification or operation/service improvement contracts.

CVs that are not submitted in World Bank format or that do not clearly allow verification of the mandatory minimum requirements will not be considered.