PSC commissioner Anele Gxoyiya said timeous submission of exception reports by provincial departments remained a concern for provincial treasuries.
The Public Service Commission (PSC) says there is an urgent need for the National Treasury to consider an overhaul in systems and policy for financial management within departments amid billions in overdue invoices to service providers.
The number of invoices paid after 30 days by provincial departments was 98 318, worth R12.6 billion. As of the end of June, 47440 invoices worth R6.5 billion were more than 30 days overdue.
According to PSC commissioner Anele Gxoyiya, timeous submission of exception reports by provincial departments remained a concern for provincial treasuries as an average submission rate of 89% is recorded for the first quarter of the 2024/25 financial year.
This represents a regression of 4% when compared with the average submission rate of 93% achieved in the first quarter of the 2023/24 financial year.
Gxoyiya presented the Pulse of the Public Service on Monday covering the period April 1 to June 30, the first quarter of the 2024/25 financial year.
The Gauteng province was the main culprit with invoices paid after 30 days totalling R3.8bn and those older than 30 days not paid at R1.2bn.
“The non-payment of invoices within 30 days remains a concern to the PSC and a violation of the Public Finance Management Act. Consequence management should be instituted against accounting officers who fail to pay service providers within 30 days upon receipt of an invoice.
“Furthermore, the National Treasury needs to urgently consider an overhaul in systems and policy for financial management within departments,” said Gxoyiya.
National departments had failed to timeously pay more than 30571 invoices worth R1.7bn to service providers.
The top three contributing offenders with the highest number of late payments was the Department of Defence with a backlog of 18496 invoices, Correctional Services with 4591 and Public Works and Infrastructure with 3537.
The most common reasons provided by departments for the late or non-payment of invoices varied from misfiled, misplaced or unrecorded invoices to inadequate internal control deficiencies.
As at June 30, the PSC registered 177 grievances, including 78 carried over from the previous financial year.
Gxoyiya said delays in the finalisation of cases can be attributed to the lack of information from departments and aggrieved employees, among other factors.
Of the 177 grievances, 68 have been concluded and 109 remained pending.
“The PSC has noted that approximately 95% of grievances referred to the PSC are referred by employees.
“The referral of grievances by employees is an indication that departments have failed to resolve these grievances internally within the prescribed time frames.
“About 65 were for unfair treatment, most emanating from strained relations between supervisors and supervisees, resulting in supervisees perceiving any action by supervisors, such as questioning the employees’ failure to meet deadlines or quality of work, as harassment, victimisation or bullying.
“Other cases of unfairness emanate from employees not understanding that they may be assigned to do certain ad hoc functions or not being happy about not being appointed into positions in which they were acting,” Gxoyiya added
Cape Times