Government payment problems persist, thousands of invoices outstanding
The Office of the Chief Procurement Officer received 5,647 queries about invoices unpaid by government departments, amounting to R620m, between July 1 2016 and end-March 2017. Government departments and state-owned entities are obliged to pay suppliers within 30 days and their failure to do so has had a severely harmful impact on small and medium enterprises, which experience debilitating cash crunches as a consequence. Documents presented to Parliament’s standing committee on finance on Tuesday by Treasury showed that of the total invoice queries received, 2,514 valued at R225m were resolved and paid by departments, 50 valued at R21m were declared as dispute invoices, and 3,083 valued at R373m were still outstanding. Treasury said the majority of entities cited cash flow challenges as the reason they deferred payment to over 60 days. For example, Gauteng’s health department — which had R51m in outstanding invoices — told Treasury that it had a problem with cash flow, which had come...
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Subscribe now to unlock this article.
Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).
There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.
Cancel anytime.
Questions? Email helpdesk@businesslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00. Got a subscription voucher? Redeem it now.