Public Service Commission supports the President’s call for payment of suppliers within 30 days
On 07 November 2019, during the SA Investment Conference in Soweto, President Cyril Ramaphosa made a call for government to ensure that suppliers are paid within 30 days.
The Public Service Commission (PSC) has noted this call with excitement, particularly because failure to pay suppliers has dire consequences for sustainability of Small Medium and Micro Enterprises, impacts negatively on the government’s job creation initiatives, and compromises government’s performance and service delivery.
The PSC is an independent and oversight institution mandated to promote and evaluate the constitutional values and principles and ensure effective and efficient performance in the public service. The non-payment of suppliers is in contravention of the Treasury Regulations and constitutional principles such as efficient, effective and economic use of resources, accountability and transparency.
The PSC has over the years been monitoring government’s adherence to the payment of suppliers. This monitoring process was conducted through hosting public hearings and engaging with defaulting departments. While there is progress on the payment of suppliers with certain departments/provinces that pay invoices timeously, a challenge remains with repeat defaulting departments/provinces that are stubborn and do not pay their suppliers.
In support of the President’s call to improve Government’s performance in the area of payment of invoices of suppliers, the PSC will continue to monitor departments closely on their compliance with the 30 day payment period with any “non-compliance viewed as financial misconduct”. Furthermore, the PSC will intensify its efforts to encourage compliance by-
- Monitoring the quarterly reports from National and Provincial treasuries to identify the repeat defaulting national and provincial departments.
- Engaging with the Executive Authorities (EAs) and Accounting Officers (AOs) of the identified repeat defaulters to obtain reasons for the non-payment of suppliers, including summonsing of AOs;
- Requesting information on measures put in place to ameliorate the situation, including consequence management (actions steps taken) to embed the constitutional principle of Accountability;
- Name the top ten defaulting departments in the PSC’s Quarterly Bulletin;
- In response to a PSC recommendation, the 30 day payment of service providers has been included in the Performance Agreements of Directors-General with effect from the 2018/19 financial year. However, defaulting Heads of Department who should be prohibited from being granted any performance rewards; and
- Engaging with relevant Portfolio Committees at both national and provincial levels to hold EAs and AOs accountable for non-payment of suppliers.
Enquiries:
Mr Humphrey Ramafoko
Tel: 012 352 1197
Cell: 082 782 1730
E-mail: humphreyr@opsc.gov.za
