Policy to guide Ministries, Departments and Agencies expenditures and payments in place to ensure transparency and accountability in the government
February 21, 2018
Thursday 15th February 2018, VICTORIA, A policy to guide expenditures and payments for Ministries, Departments and budget dependent Agencies is now in force to ensure transparent and accountable practices in government.This policy aims to ensure suppliers are paid on time by government and give clear guidance to suppliers on the time frame they are expected to be paid for services rendered.
Government is to adopt a 30 day payment settlement period from the time a supplier have submitted an invoice to a Government entity for services rendered or for having provided goods. This is to allow a standard routine procedure of verification of the documentation by the Government and formalize Government payment settlement terms.
However, to promote fair and efficient practices, government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) will apply for commercial transactions (procurement of goods and services) settle invoices within 10 working days. For relatively small capital projects this will be settled within 10 working days.
For larger infrastructure projects this will be settled 15 working days. Since all Infrastructure projects are managed centrally by the Finance department this should allow the department seven (7) working days for sample auditing, inspection and processing of payment to the Treasury Department.
Treasury will then settle all invoices submitted by the MDAs directly in the bank account of the vendor or contractor only. All suppliers and contractors are required to provide an email address, through their client MDA so as to receive an automatic remittance advice informing them at the instance the payments are transferred to their bank accounts.
Payment not effected within the timeframe will be subjected to an interest charge and will become payable for payments exceeding 30 calendar days.
As per the policy, good commerce principles should follow all transactions; such as where, possible a minimum of three Quotations must be sought to ensure value for money, amongst other pre-requisites.
For further details kindly refer to the Expenditure and payment Policy document on the Ministry of Finance, Trade and Economic Planning’s website:http://www.finance.gov.sc/resource