Gauteng health dept finds cure for late payments

The Gauteng department of health, the worst-performing of all the province’s government departments regarding paying suppliers timeously, is implementing an e-invoice accruals strategy in a bid to pay suppliers on time.

The Public Finance Management Act obliges all government departments to pay suppliers within 30 days.

In response to Democratic Alliance questions in the National Assembly, Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni revealed that the Gauteng department of health owed R2.5 billion in the 2018-2019 financial year and over R1.3 billion in the first quarter of the 2019-20 financial year.

According to Mboweni, the Gauteng provincial government was the worst in terms of nonpayment of suppliers within the prescribed 30 days for the 2018-19 financial year.

“In the 2018-19 financial year, the Gauteng provincial government owed over R2.5 billion to suppliers for invoices older than 30 days and not paid by the end of March 2019,” said Mboweni.

Department of health spokesperson Kwara Kekana said the new e-invoice system would improve supply chain processes, prevent corruption and fraud and help ensure that small businesses were no longer negatively affected by delayed payments.

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