Following the Premier’s announcement of Operation Bhadala; an initiative aimed at ensuring that all monies owed to suppliers for work spanning the 2008/09 financial year are paid by the end of September 2009, the operation continues to make progress.
Our suppliers have heeded the call to come forth and submit the necessary supporting documentation to facilitate payment. The invoices will include those of the current financial year up to 30 June 2009. Operation Bhadala is now in its third week of operation and is led by Chief Financial Officers of all the provincial government departments, supported by finance and procurement practitioners.
Through the operation we are now at the R927 million mark in total payments to date. This is a significant achievement given the nature of the outstanding matters that had to be dealt with.
We are satisfied with the response of the suppliers and the continued support the operation has received from the media. We are confident that the project remains on course and we should pay the remaining R727 million by the end of the deadline for the operation.
We have now put in place a concurrent process that will ensure that we meet our obligations in accordance with the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) and Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) strategy of paying our suppliers within 30 days of receipt of invoices.
At the conclusion of the operation; we will share with the media and the public at large some of the lessons learnt and what measures are being put in place to ensure that the challenges we faced do not happen in the future.
As part of this exercise, we are considering keeping the war room task team for at least another three to six months so that we hit the ground running with the implementation of the recommendations in the close out report.
For more information contact:
Khusela Sangoni
Cell: 072 510 5408
Issued by: Office of the Premier, Gauteng Provincial Government
17 September 2009
