DEPARTMENT OF Legal, COMPLIANCE AND CONSUMER AFFAIRS

The department of Legal, compliance and Consumer affairs comprises of three sub units of Legal, Compliance and consumer affairs with the following functions

PURPOSE

Legal Unit

• Legal Advisor to the BTA Board, on whether it is acting within the scope of the Telecommunications Act and Regulations
• Legal advisor to the BTA business in general
• Performance of regulatory functions, including the drafting of licenses, dispute settlement, and any rulings issued by the Authority.
• Secretarial duties - BTA Board, organizing and attending all Board meetings and preparing minutes for these meetings
• Debt Collectio- Outsourcing, management and control
• Legislative and regulatory compliance responsibilities
• To advise the Authority on adherence of service providers and licence holders on statutory, licence and contractual agreements and recommend appropriate legal action to ensure the delivery of value for money, competitive, reliable and quality services in accordance with the provision of licences and agreements.
• To ensure that there is publication and gazettement of some of the decisions taken by the authority in the official publications. These include service provider licenses and the 1997 Telecommunication Regulations.

Compliance Unit

• To ensure compliance by telecommunications service providers with the provisions of relevant statutory instruments and conditions of their respective Licences as well as to promote synergy between BTA and operators in order to optimise benefits to consumers of telecommunications services.

• Monitor performance of operators against set quality of service standards.

• ensure that operators comply with provisions of the Telecommunications Act, regulations as well as their respective licence conditions

• enforce telecommunication laws and regulatory decisions
  enforce competition rules prohibiting anti-competitive practices

• investigates possible infractions of laws and regulations including rules and decisions
  investigates consumer complaints
  
  
• Educate consumers about their rights with respect to telecommunication services
  
  
• Acts as a focal point within BTA for all issues relating to the business of telecommunications. It is a conduit through which operators are able to access all structures of the BTA
  

Complaints Handling Procedures
The BTA’s department of Compliance and Consumer Affairs is mandated to protect consumers of telecommunication service by investigates their complaints and resolving them where possible. These notwithstanding consumers are encouraged to seek all possible remedies form operators before approaching the department of Compliance and Consumer Affairs for assistance. For instance consumers should exhaust all of the operators’ internal complaint procedures before seeking recourse from BTA’s Department of Compliance and Consumer Affairs.
The DCCA provides free service to people who use telecommunications services (Business and residential consumers), and who have been unable to resolve a complaint directly with telecommunication service providers or Internet service Providers (ISP).

The department handles complaints relating to:

• Billing


• Interconnection


• Fault repairs


• Mobile phone problems


• Poor service quality and reliability


• Internet access contracts


• Misleading advertisement and promotions, amongst others.

Process of Handling Complaints
The Compliance and Consumer Affairs department will make an independent assessment of the complaint. The complaint will be attended to within two days of receipt of the letter, fax or email and for complex complaints it may take longer to resolve the complaint, however the complainant will be kept abreast of the progress.

However, before DCCA intervention, the complainant should have exhausted all complaint channels with the service provider. Complainants are advised to

• Get the full name, position of the customer service manager and make notes of key points discussed. Always record the time and date of the conversation.


• Always have with them relevant documents such as agreements, bills and correspondences that they consider relevant to their complaints and not send originals to the unit of consumer affairs.

Achievements of the department

• The department has achieved a turn around time of two days on acknowledging receipt of correspondence.
• Cases that are not technical are resolved within two weeks of receipt
• Enforcement of compliance by the operators is at 90%. All service providers are reminded on regular basis of their license conditions and the need to comply as stipulated. There has been great response with very few issues outstanding and these are being pursued.
• Information materials have been developed for use during the awareness education campaigns.
• As part of the education drive, five District Councils have been addressed by the department in conjunction with the Communication and Public Relations Department.
• An Education Plan is in place together with the Action Plan.

Survey

Botswana Telecommunications Authority through its department of Compliance and Consumer Affairs carried out a survey with a view to assess how consumers perceive the quality of telecommunications services provided to them. The survey covered a sample of 1000 respondents from 10 locations in Botswana. Whilst the results of the survey may not be representative of the views of consumers across Botswana, they nonetheless give useful indicators which BTA, as a regulator of telecommunications services, ought to consider as it continues to strive for promotion of high quality telecommunications services to Batswana.

Complaints management Procedure

Code of Conduct introductory papers

Voluntary code of Conduct for operators

Introductory paper to Quality of Service - Guidelines

Quality of Service - Guideline framework

Draft Quality of Service

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