MEC Maile’s department owes over R376 million to service providers

11 November 2019

The Gauteng Department of Human Settlements and COGTA owe R376 514 588,20 to 79 service providers for a period of more than 90 days which is until the end of August 2019.

This was revealed by the Gauteng Human Settlements and COGTA MEC, Lebogang Maile in a written reply to the DA questions tabled in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL).

According to MEC Maile most of the unpaid invoices are for security services.

The MEC said the department did not have enough money to pay the suppliers while other invoices have contractual problems which delayed payments.

There are also 42 service providers that are owed R216 million by the department from the 2014/15 financial year to the 2018/19 financial year.

The fact that 42 suppliers are owed money between the 2014 and 2019 financial years indicates a lack of financial management by the department.

This department is failing to adhere to the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) which states that government departments are obliged to pay suppliers within 30 days of receipt of invoice.

Furthermore , the Gauteng Premier David Makhura made a commitment ensuring that all service providers doing business with the Gauteng Provincial Departments will be paid within 30 days and that there is a need to support the growth of small enterprises while they are killing them by not paying them according to the stipulated timeframe.

Gauteng businesses that are doing business with this department will never survive as some have not yet been paid for services rendered since 2014.

The DA will hold MEC Maile accountable to ensure that his established payment task team deals with all the accruals in the department and that all accruals are resolved and cleared before the 2019/2020 financial year end.

Issued by Solly Msimanga, DA Gauteng Spokesperson on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), 11 November 2019