| Hakim Hayat |
SOME ministries are still not adhering to the standard turn-around time and mechanisms in processing required documents needed to release payments to companies or suppliers, causing delays in payments and causing backlogs, said Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office and Minister of Finance II, YB Pehin Orang Kaya Laila Setia Dato Seri Setia Awang Haji Abdul Rahman bin Haji Ibrahim.
He was responding to a query made by YB Siti Rozaimeriyanty binti Dato Seri Laila Jasa Haji Abdul Rahman, on the third day of the 13th Legislative Council (LegCo) session yesterday, where she highlighted that prevalent issues of late payments to suppliers has caused cash-flow problems among companies and also the public, forcing some companies to reduce their manpower or even shut down.
YB Siti Rozaimeriyanty pointed out that data provided by DARe (Darussalam Enterprise) showed that from the period of last year until February 16, 2017, a total of 1,315 cases of late payments to companies were reported to the statutory body and 899 cases were solved.
She shared further that to date, a total of 1,277 cases are still outstanding, with a total of 66 companies claiming some B$55,836,925 that has yet to be settled by the government.
The LegCo member asked whether the budget to settle the outstanding payments has been allocated for the respective ministries while also suggesting for an “end-to-end” payment mechanism, such as an online system that allows companies to upload their invoices and provide real-time tracking until the payment is approved.
The Minister of Finance II underlined that the process of streamlining and enhancing the payment system is an ongoing effort, while also sharing that improvements were made since 2014 when an invoice tracking module was first introduced through the Treasury Accounting Financial Information System (TAFIS) to increase accountability and transparency in the payments process.
Since then, he said other improvements such as e-mail notifications and enhancement of the module of tenders and contracts were implemented to ensure all payment requests and monitoring can be done through TAFIS, including payments associated with the National Development Plan.
Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office and Minister of Finance II, YB Pehin Orang Kaya Laila Setia Dato Seri Setia Haji Awang Abdul Rahman bin Haji Ibrahim. – BAHYIAH BAKIR
However, the minister said the ministries and its departments must be committed and follow through the processes in order to ensure swift processing of payments to companies.
“They must issue purchase orders and process payments instantly after services has been rendered. As noted in a recent dialogue session with the respective ministries, we found that there are ministries that have made payment processing within the TPOR (Client’s Charter)…there are two to three ministries that have surpassed 20 per cent of the standard while the rest are still in the single digit percentage range (of achieving the standard),” he highlighted.
He also noted that some people were “trying to beat the system”, which causes invoices not uploaded into the invoice tracking system causing bigger problems especially in monitoring the process.
“We took note of this problem and will speak to the ministries on ways to speed up payments through dialogue sessions,” he added.
In their bid to promote and educate the public on the system, the minister said a step-by-step guide has also been promoted on TV on the tracking system that shows how vendors can submit their claims.
“We certainly hope this is effective and also ask for the cooperation from suppliers and companies to follow through the process through the existing system. They should also follow up with the relevant ministries to produce their purchase orders so that budget allocation can be made,” the minster said.
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