HEALTH DEPARTMENT ACCOUNTS

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite) (14:43): My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! I can't hear the member for Waite.

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH: Why in May 2011 did the minister's department fail to pay more than half its accounts by the due date? The Department of Health annual report 2010-11 (tabled six months late, yesterday) states that only 45.5 per cent of accounts in May were paid on time, leaving around $19.5 million worth of accounts paid late in that month alone.

The SPEAKER: I think that was to the Minister for Health, was it?

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH: Yes.

The SPEAKER: I thought we had a very similar question in the last few days.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Minister.

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Ageing, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts) (14:44): Thank you, Madam Speaker, and I thank the member for his question, predictable as it is. It is deeply regrettable that the health department has not paid its accounts according to government policy, which is 90 per cent of accounts to be paid within the prescribed time of usually 30 days but sometimes, I think, 60 days. Health has not performed as well as it might and it is something that we are obviously concerned about as a government and that the department is focusing on improving. As I said to the house in my ministerial statement yesterday, the Oracle system has caused some of these issues, and we had a disruption in the standard procedures which caused this problem. It is unfortunate and deeply regrettable and I do apologise to the relevant businesses.

I am advised that in the 2010-11 financial year Health paid 72.4 per cent of invoices by the due date and another 20.4 per cent within 30 days of the due date, so over 90 per cent were paid within 60 days. Not all vendors had 30-day terms, some had 60-day terms. As I say, the target is to have 90 per cent paid by the due date. So they are about a month behind in 20 per cent of cases. That is not good enough and we will obviously work to address that.

The introduction of the Oracle system has slowed that down and I am absolutely clear that that has been the case, but once the Oracle system is in place, as it is in other government agencies, I would expect to see an improvement.