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Public Service Commission Supports the President's Call for Payment of Suppliers within 30 Days
12 November 2019
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.
Issued by Advocate Richard Sizani, Chairperson of the
Public Service Commission
For enquiries, please contact: Mr Humphrey Ramafoko;
Tel: 012 352 1197; Cell: 082 782 1730; Email:
humphreyr@opsc.gov.za.
National Anti-Corruption Hotline: 0800 701 701
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