02 Dec 2019

The Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, through the office of the accountant general, is responsible for facilitating payments to suppliers.

Finance and economic development minister, Dr Thapelo Matsheka said once the procurement process was complete, payment was then initiated by completing and submitting the required documentation to revenue offices and accountant general’s banking section for transfer of the funds to the supplier’s bank account.

He said he was cognizant of the fact that late payments to suppliers may ultimately lead to a collapse of business if not properly managed.

Dr Matsheka said in the realisation of the undesirable situation, government had re-engineered processes across line ministries and independent departments by coming up with general public service standards which were widely shared with the public.

He said with regards to payments, a requirement was that suppliers of goods and services should be paid within 10 working days from the date of receipt of an invoice.

He said out of 10 days, the ministry was accorded two days upon receipt of a payment instruction from the procuring entity with all the required supporting documents in order to have effected the transfer of funds.

He said efforts were continuously made to sensitise the public through press releases and radio announcements to emphasise that no supplier payment should be unduly delayed.

He said suppliers were afforded an opportunity under the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal regulation 91 to charge interest when payment was 30 days overdue.

Dr Matsheka said his ministry did not have plans to criminalise late payments of suppliers as this was considered to be an administrative matter.

Furthermore, he said accounting officers of the respective line ministries were empowered by section 41 of the Public Service Act to take administrative action against officers who caused or contributed to the delay in payments.

He said the performance of accounting officers of line ministries was reviewed on a one-on-one basis by Permanent Secretary to the President every six months and adherence to generic public service standards form part of the criteria.The minister said they had established a standard and inspection section in the Office of the Accountant General to ensure that line ministries complied with the Public Finance Management Act, and any relevant directives and circulars issued from time to time in the utilisation and custody of public finances and supplies

Dr Matsheka said in an endeavour to improve service delivery, his ministry had come up with initiatives to improve the payment process through various online platforms, such as electronic funds transfer, real time gross system and the Pula card.

The intention, he said, was to continue to automate more processes to facilitate online transacting with the view to improve efficiency, adding that the automation process would allow for more accurate data in responding to issues of performance and late payments of suppliers.

Kanye North MP Mr Thapelo  Letsholo had asked the Minister if he was aware that late payments to suppliers sabotaged and collapsed small businesses in Botswana and if so, to state if it was not time to penalise or criminalise late payments of suppliers.

He had also wanted to know when the government would have a compliance officer to monitor adherence to payment standards by government, and how many businesses in the Kanye North Constituency have been affected by this over the last five years. ENDS