Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Patricia de Lille says the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) is making notable progress on payments to service providers and paying within the stipulated 30-day period.

She notes in an August 26 statement that the DPWI had processed 1 686 invoices between August 12 and 19, or 95.4% of the total.

There were 14 overdue payments for invoices beyond the 30-day period between August 12 and 19, and four of these payments worth R2.9-million were made within that week, she added.

"The remaining ten payments are still being processed, with an additional two overdue payments, as of August 19. Twelve payments were beyond the 30-day period at the same date."

Further, most of the DPWI regional offices, including those in Cape Town, Durban, Pretoria, Johannesburg, Kimberley, Mthatha, Nelspruit and Gqeberha, had no unpaid invoices beyond the 30-day period in the week of August 12 to 19.

"I have constantly stressed to the department the importance of paying suppliers on time, emphasising that this was not only legal duty of the State, but also [necessary] to ensure . . . suppliers . . . can keep their businesses running and continue creating jobs and contributing to the economy," De Lille comments.

Small to medium-sized enterprises, especially, suffer significant losses and, at times, have to close their doors if they are not paid on time by government departments.

The DPWI handles and pays on average 1 130 invoices a month and its Property Management Trading Entity handles and pays on average 11 700 invoices a month.

"The latest statistics are encouraging and have been a priority for myself and are being meticulously driven by the finance team in the department," De Lille says.

The department used to have more than 11 500 unpaid invoices over 30 days before the introduction of the Reapatala Tracking System.

"The issue of late payments was one of the main issues I tackled when I took office in June 2019. At the time, there were around 2 084 late payments on a weekly basis on the system beyond the 30-day stipulated payment period."

The department instituted consequence management for officials found responsible for late payments without good reason. The number of consequence management processes implemented was for 166 invoices involving 180 officials between April 2021 and February 28, this year, De Lille points out.

The Reapatala system is a platform where all invoices of the department are received in a central place where all finance officials have access to the invoices posted from all regional offices and head office to avoid claims that invoices were processed. This system has managed to ensure effective tracking of invoices to be paid timeously.

"As part of a range of efforts to ensure that we pay service providers on time and minimize late payments, weekly meetings with our regional offices and regular interventions by myself and various teams in the department, through Reapatala reports, have resulted in few overdue payments by DPWI to service providers," she states.

De Lille says she is tracking this work within the department on a weekly basis and has noted a steady decline in overdue payments.

"We are, at all times, striving for zero late payments; however, in some cases there is good reason for late payments when there are discrepancies with invoices which need to be clarified. I will continue to monitor this matter weekly as I have been since taking office to ensure we, at all times, pay suppliers on time and resolve any invoice disputes speedily.