Parliament - Cabinet approved the establishment of a special unit to assist national and provincial government departments to pay their bills on time, Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe announced on Friday.
Briefing journalists following Wednesday’s fortnightly cabinet meeting, Radebe said the unit would be set up in his department of planning, monitoring and evaluation.
“The unit will work collaboratively with the national treasury and the department of public service and administration,” Radebe said.
According to a comparative analysis of national government departments between January to October 2013, and January to October 2014, revealed an improvement of 39 percent on the number of invoices paid to suppliers within 30 days.
“National departments reported 155 572 invoices worth R3.8 billion which were paid after 30 days. At the same time, 62,887 invoices worth R2.1 billion which were older than 30 days had not been paid,” said Radebe.
In comparison, provincial government departments showed very little improvement.
“Provinces reported 241 332 invoices worth R13.4 billion which were paid after 30 days and 356 079 invoices worth R21.8 billion which were older than 30 days which were not paid,” said Radebe.
“This is a 52 percent regression in the average number of invoices that is older than 30 days and which have not been paid.”
He said a hotline would be set up so suppliers could log complaints regarding delayed payments with the special unit.
ANA