Contractor Invoices

249 The Hon. H.M. GIROLAMO ().26 March 2023). Can the Treasurer provide a list of all contractor invoices (as a percentage and gross total) paid within seven, 15 and 28 days by government departments and agencies since 19 March 2022?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector): The Treasurer has advised:

Accounts payment performance reporting for government departments and agencies is released publicly via the Shared Services SA website on a monthly basis.

These figures include all payments made by public authorities and are not limited to contractor invoices.

Part-month figures and statistics on invoices paid within seven calendar days and 28 calendar days are not available from current reporting practices.

As set out in Treasurer's Instruction 11, the current standard trading terms are 30 days from the date an invoice is received by a public authority.

It is intended that this period will be reduced to 15 calendar days effective 1 July 2024, as part of the Malinauskas government's election commitments around government procurement reform.

To implement this election commitment, the government has adjusted reporting requirements from 1 February 2023 to capture the proportion of invoices by both value and volume paid with 15 calendar days, rather than 20 calendar days.

The 1 July 2024 effective date reflects the programming effort required to change public authority finance systems to calculate and disburse late payment interest automatically using the 15 calendar day time frame.

Some public authorities will find it easier than others to make this change. The change in reporting requirements before the payment requirement takes effect allows the government to assess the capability of public authorities to make this shift.

As can be seen in the attachment, some public authorities are already making nearly all their payments within 15 calendar days. Other public authorities have a significantly lower proportion.

The government is monitoring this closely and liaising with public authorities to ensure they have the necessary arrangements in place to meet the payment requirement target of 15 calendar days by 1 July 2024.

The government intends to implement this change via the tabling of a bill in parliament amending the Late Payment of Government Debts' (Interest) Act 2013, such that penalty interest is automatically applied to invoices not paid with 15 calendar days.

Specific contractor invoice data can be found below subject to the reporting constraints outlined above.

For the period 1 April 2022 to 31 January 2023, approximately 2.909 million invoices were paid with a total value of $16.944 billion. Of these invoices:

92.51 per cent by volume and 90.62 per cent by value were paid in 20 calendar days or less; and

98.58 per cent by volume and 97.69 per cent by value were paid in 30 calendar days or less.

As mentioned, from 1 February 2023, reporting has been implemented to measure the volume and value of invoices paid within 15 calendar days or less, consistent with the government's election commitment.

For the period 1 February 2023 to 31 March 2023, 517,495 invoices were paid with a total value of approximately $2.605 billion. Of these invoices:

92.84 per cent by volume and 86.37 per cent by value were paid in 15 calendar days or less; and

98.67 per cent by volume and 97.60 per cent by value were paid in 30 calendar days or less.