04 June 2004
The Scottish Executive has again missed its targets for paying bills on time, leaving millions of pounds outstanding, according to figures disclosed this week.
Business leaders warned that late payments could cost jobs, and criticised First Minister Jack McConnell, who has pledged to prioritise the safeguarding of jobs and the economy.
CBI Scotland and the Federation of Small Businesses voiced disappointment and concern. A CBI spokesman said businesses had faced further costs emanating from the Executive. It was a bitter pill that payments due to firms were still not being paid promptly, which seriously affected cash flow.
The figures showed that the Executive was late in paying almost one in five of its suppliers' invoices in the year ending March 2004. The Executive's target is to pay 100% of undisputed bills within 30 days. However, it only managed to meet the deadline in 82.4% of cases.
Executive agencies performed better than the seven core departments, which are responsible for paying the biggest bills. The development, education, enterprise, environment, health, finance and justice departments paid just 76.9% of their 80,992 bills on time, resulting in £16.1m being still due to businesses after the 30-day target period.
Executive agencies, including Communities Scotland and the Scottish Prison Services, paid 90.5% of their 54,554 invoices on time, leaving £1m outstanding beyond 30 days.
The 76.9% figure for core departments compares with 98% achieved in the financial year 2000/01 and 86.4% in 2001/02. However, it is an improvement on 2002/03 when the figure fell to just 68.5% following the introduction of a new £4.5m computer system.
Confirming the figures, an Executive spokesman said teething problems caused by the new computer system were still having an effect on payments. He admitted: 'The figures are still not good enough and efforts are being made to improve the situation over the next year.'
PFjun2004
