P2 billion suppliers’ debt settled
Vice President and Finance Minister Ndaba Gaolathe has revealed that as of 31 October 2024, the Office of the Accountant General held 56 outstanding supplier payment instructions worth nearly P2 billion.
He said these obligations relate strictly to invoices that had been duly received at the time, with some dating as far back as 15 October 2024. He reiterated that this figure reflects only the invoices that were formally on hand at the Ministry of Finance then.
It does not necessarily represent the full extent of the government's obligations across all Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, as additional invoices remained at source and were yet to be submitted for payment, he said.
Gaolathe, who also doubles as the Vice President of the country, highlighted that the Government is actively working towards the implementation of an integrated e-Procurement system, which will provide end-to-end visibility of commitments and invoices from the point of procurement through to final payment.
This reform, he said, will significantly enhance transparency, accountability and fiscal planning.
According to Gaolathe, the Ministry of Finance can only report on invoices that have been formally submitted to it through the Office of the Accountant General for payment processing.
He stated that procurement activities, including the receipt and verification of invoices, are undertaken independently by Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).
As such, he said the Ministry of Finance does not have sight of obligations that remain at source within these MDAs until such time when they are formally transmitted for payment.
He noted that the amount owed to suppliers across the Government is therefore not fixed or static, but rather dynamic and continuously evolving.
MDAs may, at any point, submit invoices that have been held for varying periods, including those that may not have been previously disclosed. Consequently, any figure reported by the Ministry of Finance represents only the value of invoices that are on hand and formally lodged within the payment system at that specific point in time, and not the full universe of obligations that may exist across Government.
Gaolathe was responding to a question from MP for Molepolole North, Arafat Khan, who asked the Minister of Finance to state whether the Government owed any companies, individuals, or other creditors as at the end of October 2024.
“This explains why, despite repeated requests for full disclosure, the Ministry continues to face challenges in obtaining complete and timely information from all MDAs.
The late submission of invoices, sometimes in significant volumes, undermines accurate cashflow planning and creates the impression of fluctuating or increasing arrears, when in fact these may relate to historical obligations only now being brought forward,” said Gaolathe.
He clarified that the Ministry of Finance, at any point in time, can only speak with certainty to the obligations that have been formally submitted to it.
“Regarding the request for a detailed spreadsheet identifying individual creditors and specific invoice amounts, I must respectfully inform this Honourable House that the Ministry of Finance is unable to disclose the names of individual suppliers and their specific financial particulars.”
According to Gaolathe, this position is informed by the Data Protection Act Compliance and the Confidentiality of contracts.
He informed Parliament that all outstanding payment instructions that were on hand at the Ministry of Finance as at 31 October 2024, amounting to Pl, 195,442,112.0, were fully settled by 26 November 2024.
Gaolathe noted that this means that, with respect to invoices that had been formally submitted to the Ministry of Finance through the Office of the Accountant General, there are currently no outstanding payments relating to that period.
“Consequently, while all invoices that were on hand at the Ministry as at 31 October 2024 have been cleared, the Ministry cannot definitively rule out the existence of additional obligations that may not yet have been submitted by MDAs for payment.”
He also pointed out that the position, therefore, is that there are no outstanding creditors within the records of the Ministry of Finance for invoices received as at that date, but any broader assessment of the Government's total outstanding obligations remains dependent on the completeness and timeliness of submissions from MDAs.