Question NW3959 to the Minister of Finance

Reply:

The National Treasury cannot certify the data provided in respect to this question, as only the accounting officer at each national or provincial department or municipality can do so. The data provided is not verified.

National Treasury Instruction Note No. 34 requires departments to submit exception reports to the relevant treasuries by the 7th day of each month with details of the number and rand value of invoices paid after 30 days and those that remain unpaid from the date of receiving invoices. Provincial departments submit information on the late payment of invoices to their respective treasuries. Information at provincial government is collated by their respective treasuries, consolidated, and submitted to the National Treasury by the 15th day of every month with information on the preceding month. Therefore, statistical information for each provincial department can be obtained from the relevant treasuries. The treasury instruction further requires the accounting officers of departments to confirm the accuracy of information reported by signing off these reports prior to its submission to the relevant treasuries.

Since the inception of the National Treasury Instruction Note No.34, the National Treasury provides progress reports on this requirement to the relevant stakeholders and continues to monitor the level of compliance with the requirement to pay supplier’s invoices within the prescribed period. Such progress reports are shared with the relevant stakeholders on a quarterly and annual basis. The information collated from departments forms the basis of compiling the quarterly and annual reports which can be located on the link below:

http://www.treasury.gov.za/legislation/pfma/Compliance%20on%20Payment%20of%20Suppliers/default.aspx

The statistics provided below provides information collated from departments for quarter 1 of the 2022/2023 financial year. The tables below contain information owed by departments to all suppliers including SMME’s for quarter 1 of 2022/2023 financial year, but we do not have a more detailed breakdown on amounts owing to SMMEs.

(a)(i)

Table 1 below provides a list of national departments that reported invoices older than 30 days and not paid at the end of June 2022.

Table 1: Total number and rand value of invoices older than 30 days and not paid by national departments at the end of June 2022

Department	Older than 30 days and not paid
	Number	Rand Value
Home Affairs	2	R14 806
Public Works and Infrastructure (Main Account)	1	R11 154
Water and Sanitation (Main Account)	3	R19 647
Social Development	4	R92 567
Statistics South Africa	6	R599 146
Forestry, Fisheries and Environment	7	R71 720
Public Works and Infrastructure (Trading Account)	23	R3 010
Tourism	149	R705 591
Water and Sanitation (Trading Account)	764	R2 590 747
Total	959	R4 108 387

(a) (ii)

Table 2 below provides statistics of provincial government on the number and rand value of invoices outstanding at the end June 2022.

Table 2: Total number and rand value of invoices older than 30 days and not paid by provincial departments at the end of June 2022

Provincial Departments Number and Rand Value of invoices older than 30 days and not paid per province
Province	Number of invoices	Rand Value of invoices
Mpumalanga	3	R 3 033 218
Western Cape	4	R31 293
Limpopo	26	R3 533 130
Kwazulu-Natal	669	R27 353 872
Free State	967	R281 492 366
Northern Cape	1 131	R233 665 843
Gauteng	3 530	R1 334 443 888
North West	3 769	R392 170 711
Eastern Cape	14 143	R2 541 533 317
Total	24 242	R4 817 257 638

(a)(iii)

The information below represents the first quarter reported to the local government data base by municipalities as per section 71 of the MFMA. It is aggregated per province for ease of reference. Unfortunately, the level of information that the question requires is not available from the reporting template and must be obtained from the municipality directly.

Information related to Municipalities may be obtained at those relevant Municipalities

(b)

The common reasons provided by national and provincial departments for late and/or non-payment of invoices during the first quarter of the 2022/2023 financial year are as follows –

• IT system issues (BAS, LOGiS, Safety web etc);
• Delay in submission of invoices for processing;
• Unresolved invoice discrepancies;
• Client departments not confirming Funds timeously;
• CSD information not updated timeously by suppliers;
• Inadequate budget; and
• Inadequate internal capacity

(b)

In addition to the response under a(iii) above, information on Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) can be obtained from individual municipalities as currently there is no process instituted by the National Treasury to collate and report on such information.