Statement by Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, Patricia de Lille - Department of Public Works and Infrastructure making good progress with 30 day payments to service providers
In response to a Parliamentary question on unpaid invoices to suppliers, I was pleased to report notable progress by the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure.
The total number of unpaid invoices for more than 30 days, 60 days, 90 days and 120 days as at 15 February 2022 were all zero.
The DPWI and Property Management Trading Entity (PMTE), also under DPWI, handles and pays on average 858 and 11 300 number of invoices on a monthly basis respectively.
The department used to have more than 11 500 unpaid invoices over 30 days before the introduction of Reapatala Tracking System by the Minister and the Chief Financial Officer and his team.
The Reapatala system is a platform where all invoices of the department are internally received and managed to ensure effective tracking of invoices to be paid timeously.
As part of a range of efforts to ensure that we pay service providers on time and minimize late payments, weekly meetings with our regional offices and regular interventions by the Minister through Reapatala reports resulted in the zero outstanding invoices for DPWI and PMTE respectively.
The issue of late payments was one of the main issues I tackled when I took office in June 2019. At the time there were 2 084 late payments on a weekly basis on the system beyond the 30 day stipulated payment period.
In February 2022 the total amount of invoices paid by DPWI amounted to R874 million while lease payments made in February 2022 amounted to R375 million. Therefore total paid for invoices and leases for the month of February by DPWI was R1. 2 billion.
The department also instituted consequence management for officials found responsible for late payments without good reason. The number of consequence management processes implemented was for 166 invoices involving 180 officials between April 2021 and 28 February 2022.
I have constantly stressed to the Department the importance of paying suppliers on time emphasizing that this was not only legal duty of the state but also to ensure that we pay suppliers on time and ensure that they can keep their businesses running and continue creating jobs and contributing to the economy.
Often companies, especially small to medium enterprises suffer huge losses and at times go under if they are not paid on time by government departments.
The latest statistics are encouraging and has been a priority for myself and is being meticulously driven under the leadership of DPWI’s Chief Financial Officer.
I will continue to monitor this matter weekly as I have been since taking office to ensure that we at all times pay suppliers on time and resolve any invoice disputes speedily.
Enquiries:
Zara Nicholson:
Cell: 079 416 5996
E-mail: zara.nicholson@dpw.gov.za
