Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Patricia de Lille reports that “notable progress” has been made by the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) on paying unpaid invoices from its suppliers, with unpaid invoices for more than 30 days, 60 days, 90 days and 120 days being zero as of February 15.

She made the remarks following a Parliamentary question on unpaid supplier invoices.

The DPWI and the Property Management Trading Entity (PMTE), which also falls under the DPWI, handles and pays, on average, between 858 and 11 300 invoices a month.

Prior to implementing its Reapatala Tracking System, the DPWI had more than 11 500 unpaid invoices over 30 days.

The Reapatala system is a platform where all invoices of the department are internally received and managed to ensure effective tracking of invoices to be paid timeously.

As part of a range of efforts to ensure the DPWI pays service providers on time and reduces late payments, weekly meetings with its regional offices and regular interventions by De Lille, through Reapatala reports resulted in the zero outstanding invoices for the DPWI and the PMTE.

De Lille says the issue of late payments was one of the main issues she tackled when she took office in June 2019. At the time, there were 2 084 late payments on a weekly basis beyond the 30-day stipulated payment period.

In February, the total amount of invoices paid by the DPWI totalled R874-million, while lease payments made the same month totalled R375-million. Therefore, total paid for invoices and leases for the month of February by the DPWI was R1.2-billion.

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