Government misses 30-day deadline on R22 billion in invoices
· Citizen
Service providers and business owners are being placed under financial strain while government delays paying invoices.
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The Public Service Commission (PSC) on Wednesday revealed the extent to which government was leaving invoices idle in its second quarter report for the 2025-26 financial year.
National Treasury regulations stipulate that invoices must be paid within 30 days; or else, accounting officers run the risk of disciplinary action .
The commission’s report shows the provincial government to be the overwhelming culprit, responsible for 97% of invoices that went unpaid after the 30-day period had lapsed.
“The PSC will further engage the Office of the Auditor General on mechanisms to ensure consequence management against accounting officers who fail to pay service providers,” the entity stated.
207 000 late invoices in one quarter
Across the second quarter of the financial year, national and provincial governments had 95 399 invoices that were still unpaid after the 30-day limit, 13 663 more than the previous quarter.
The total value of these invoices amounted to R12.4 billion.
A further 112 442 invoices were paid after the 30-day mark, with those invoices totalling R10 billion – an improvement from the R14.7 billion paid late in the previous quarter.
Justice and Constitutional Development had the highest number of unpaid invoices, with 1 549 outstanding payments totalling R24 million.
Public Works had the highest outstanding bill, with R224 million in invoices passing the 30-day mark.
The Department of Defence was the overwhelming villain, letting 20 784 invoices totalling R982 million run over 30 days.
The Eastern Cape and Gauteng were the worst-performing provinces, accounting for 69% of all invoices still unpaid after 30 days, owing R8 billion.
Government ‘counter-productive’
Reasons given by departments for not paying included their own financial constraints, system and database errors, disputes, late processing, as well as misplaced, misfiled or unrecorded invoices.
The PSC stated that small and micro enterprises had long been identified in national policies as being critical to job creation, yet were being failed by the state.
“Non-payment of invoices is a contributing factor to the lack of sustainability in the small business environment,” stated PSC Commissioner Anele Gxoyiya.
The commissioner explained that failure to pay invoices caused businesses cash-flow constraints, forced them to go into debt and ultimately led to job losses.
“Overall non-payment of invoices is counter-productive towards government’s vision of economic development, job creation and poverty alleviation,” Gxoyiya said.
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