Public Service Commission (PSC) Commissioner Anele Gxoyiya says the non-payment of invoices within 30 days remains a concern to the Commission, and that it is a violation of the public.

‘Consequence management should be instituted against accounting officers who fail to pay service providers within 30 days upon receipt of an invoice,’ Gxoyiya said.

Briefing media in Pretoria on Monday on the PSC’s Quarterly Bulletin covering the period 1 April – 30 June 2024, Gxoyiya said the National Treasury needs to urgently consider an overhaul in systems and policy for financial management within departments.

Gxoyiya said the total number of invoices older than 30 days and not paid by national departments amounted to 1 651 invoices, with a rand value of R97 million, as at the end of June 2024.

‘According to National Treasury’s first quarter report for the 2024/25 financial year on late payments of supplier invoices, the number of invoices paid after 30 days by the national departments was 30 571, with the rand value
of R1.7 billion, as at the end of the first quarter of the 2024/25 financial year.’

Gxoyiya said all national departments submitted their Exception Reports on the payment of supplier’s invoices to National Treasury, as required by National Treasury Instruction No. 34, during the first quarter of the 2024/25 financial year, which shows an average timeous submission rate of 85%.

‘This, however, represents a regression of 2% when compared with the average timeous submission rate of 87% achieved in the fourth quarter of the 2023/24 financial year.

‘Departments that consistently comply with this legislation are commended and departments that are appearing for the first time in this list are encouraged to continue and maintain this performance and pay all legitimate invoices from suppliers timeously or within 30 days as required by the Public Finance Management Act and its related prescripts,’ Gxoyiya said.

Gxoyiya said the most common reasons provided by departments for the late and/or non-payment of invoices
vary from misfiled, misplaced or unrecorded invoices to inadequate internal control deficiencies.

‘National Treasury has since provided recommendations to assist departments in addressing the identified root causes for late and/or non-payment of invoices and to ensure improvement in compliance with the requirement to pay suppliers’ invoices within the prescribed period of 30 days,’ he said.

Gxoyiya said timeous submission of Exception Reports by provincial departments remains a concern for provincial treasuries, as an average submission rate of 89% is recorded for the first quarter of the 2024/25 financial year.

This, according to Gxoyiya, represents a regression of 4% when compared with the average timeous submission rate of 93% achieved in the first quarter of the 2023/24 financial year.

‘Provincial departments’ invoices paid after 30 days represents an average of 76% of the total, therefore, it is concerning when the same departments are not even submitting Exception Reports timeously,’ Gxoyiya said.

S
ource: South African Government News Agency