Government Launches Vendor Payment Hotline
The Accountant General has established a Vendor Payment Hotline, and starting today [July 18] all vendors with outstanding invoices over a 30 day period with the Bermuda Government are invited to call 279-2660.
“The Bermuda Government is committed to ensuring that all departments pay their vendors in a timely fashion,” said a Government spokesperson,
“In order to ensure that departments are processing payments efficiently, all vendors [excluding GEHI service providers] who currently have invoices outstanding over 30 days with the Bermuda Government and to date have not been able to resolve the issue directly with the Government Departmentare invited to call 279-2660, Monday to Friday, between the hours of 9am and 5pm.”
Those individuals are asked to be prepared to provide the following information: Vendor name and contact information; Name of the Government Department with whom the goods were provided or services rendered, and the name of the contact person from that department; Purchase order number; Invoice number; Invoice date; Invoice amount; Account number to which the payment was to be remitted. Vendors can also submit their information electronically via email at vendorquery@gov.bm with the above noted information or you can complete the “Reporting Late Vendor Payments” form online at www.gov.bm.”
“Any outstanding invoice will be investigated and vendors will be advised of the status. It is hoped that this hotline will assist the Bermuda Government as we continue to address any underlying issues that may be contributing to isolated payment delays.”
Junior Minister of Finance Senator David Burt spoke about the matter in the Senate this morning saying: “During the period of March 1, 2012 – May 31, 2012 the Government issued 47,451 payments. The overall average time for the payment on these invoices was 23 days.
“Out of the 72 Government departments that make regular payments, 58 departments or 81% of all government departments average 25 days or less for the payment of their invoices, and 65 departments of 90% of all government departments average 30 days or less for the payment of their invoices.
“The remaining 10% of government departments that are currently averaging over 30 days for the payment of their invoices account for 3, 105 or 7% of the total invoices paid during the time period.
“This morning I would like to announce that the Accountant General has established a Vendor Payment Hotline. Starting today, all vendors with outstanding invoices over a 30 day period with the Bermuda Government are invited to call 279-2660.
“Vendors with late invoices that are outstanding by 30 days or more can also report issues by email at vendorquery@gov.bm or they can complete the “Reporting Late Vendor Payments”form online at www.gov.bm. This service will be provided for an 8 week period, giving the Government the means to establish the statuses of outstanding invoices and detect the areas within the Government that are causing the most delay in payment.”
Senator Burt’s full statement follows below:
Good Morning Madam President,
I speak this morning on an issue that has received some attention in the last few months, and that is payments to the many vendors that provide goods and services to the Government of Bermuda.
On November 2, 2011 the Government completed the first phase of a significant project which saw the Government replace its financial systems. This project saw the installation of the JD Edwards Enterprise 1 system, known through the Government as E1.
Madam President, as with any new system implementation, there were some challenges with the new system which were related to the Government’s payment processes – which delayed some payments. These concerns related to the interfaces with local and overseas banks and the new system.
These issues were resolved last year in order to ensure that these payments can be made timely and efficiently. There was also a learning curve as employees became more comfortable with the new system, which also significantly affected the payments process.
Madam President, it should be noted that departments are now able to authorize payments at the departmental level under the new system. Once payments are authorized and submitted to the Accountant General’s Department, electronic payments are made to the bank within 5 business days. The system also allows departments to track the status of their payments.
Madam President, the Government pays most vendors electronically, which allows the funds to be remitted into the account within 1 or 2 days of the payment being released. When the payment is released, an email is sent to the vendor detailing the items included in the payment.
As such, funds are now transferred immediately to the bank for further processing to the vendor’s accounts when they are remitted from the Government’s accounts, which can be seen on line once the bank processes the transaction if a vendor has the ability to review their accounts with online banking access.
Madam President, this process reduces the costs of processing cheques, reduces the paper used in the processing of cheques, reduces costs of mailing and courier packages for sending cheques, and eliminates the time delay of cheques being received in the mail, and allows vendors much quicker access to their funds. To further reduce costs and increase efficiency, the Accountant General has reduced the number of regular cheque runs to one per month.
Madam President, the reply to the Throne Speech delivered by the Opposition, contained a pledge that the Opposition would ensure that Government paid its bills within 30 days. One must expect of course that this pledge meant that the Government was unable to pay its bills within 30 days and it would take a new government to fix the problem.
Madam President, I am pleased to report to the Senate and the people of Bermuda the facts related to the timeliness of government payments, and also outline additional measures to be taken to improve on our performance.
During the period of March 1, 2012 – May 31, 2012 the Government issued 47,451 payments. The overall average time for the payment on these invoices was 23 days. Madam President, I think that bears repeating, that in the 3 month period mentioned before, the average time to issue payment to vendors was 23 days.
Madam President, during this period, 44,604 or 96% of all payments were domestic payments. Out of those payments, 37,644 were made by wire transfer and the average time for payment on these invoices was 19 days. The remaining 6,960 domestic payments were made by cheque and the average time for payment on these invoices was 26 days.
Madam President, the remaining 2,861 or 4% of all payments were overseas payments. Out of those payments, 2,662 were made by wire transfer and the average time for payment on these invoices was 23 days. The remaining 197 foreign payments were made by cheque and the average time for payment on these invoices was 29 days.
Madam President, as you can understand from these statistics the Government is doing its job to ensure that vendors are paid in a timely fashion. However, there are improvements that can be made as there are some departments that are better than others.
Out of the 72 Government departments that make regular payments, 58 departments or 81% of all government departments average 25 days or less for the payment of their invoices, and 65 departments of 90% of all government departments average 30 days or less for the payment of their invoices.
The remaining 10% of government departments that are currently averaging over 30 days for the payment of their invoices account for 3, 105 or 7% of the total invoices paid during the time period.
Madam President, this morning I would like to announce that the Accountant General has established a Vendor Payment Hotline. Starting today, all vendors with outstanding invoices over a 30 day period with the Bermuda Government are invited to call 279-2660.
Vendors with late invoices that are outstanding by 30 days or more can also report issues by email at vendorquery@gov.bm or they can complete the “Reporting Late Vendor Payments”form online at www.gov.bm. This service will be provided for an 8 week period, giving the Government the means to establish the statuses of outstanding invoices and detect the areas within the Government that are causing the most delay in payment.
Any outstanding invoice will be investigated and vendors will be advised of the status. It is hoped that this hotline will assist the Bermuda Government as we continue to address any underlying issues that may be contributing to isolated payment delays within Government departments.
This will open up the opportunity for the Government to fix the areas of departments that are having problems with making payments in a timely manner. At the midpoint and end of this project, reports will be prepared and forwarded to the Financial Secretary so that problem departments can be identified.
Madam President, the Bermuda Government is committed to ensuring that all departments pay their vendors in a timely fashion. It is expected that this effort will assist us in improving the service provided by the Government of Bermuda. Currently 80% of our Government departments pay their invoices within in 25 days. Our aim is to have 100% of Government departments paying their invoices in less than 25 days, and given our progress to date, I have no doubt that this aim can be met.
Thank you Madam President.
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Is it that many people that Government hasn’t paid that a special hotline is needed?
So this covers all Government vendors who have invoices unpaid after 30 days, except GEHI Vendors. This sounds rather strange considering the connection with the recent issue involving dentists and GEHI. Maybe the Junior Minister could clarify why GEHI is not included, and how far behind they are in their payments.
Very good question. Why is GEHI not included, and how far behind are they?
On another point, perhaps the Government could also publicise a list of employers behind with Social Security and Payroll Tax returns.
Soooo…is this government now admitting to being late on payments?
Only 11 more steps to go!!!
A lot of BSING going on these days!!!
“90% of all government departments average 30 days or less for the payment of their invoices.”…Does this not mean if they ‘average’ 30 days or less, that half of their payments are over 30 days?
and is that an average of the total number of invoices processed – i.e. do they pay all the miniscule invoices on time and let the big ones drag on unpaid for months?
It’s fun to manipulate statistics to make you look like you are doing better than you really are – just ask the BDOT and their awesome arrivals graphs!
He’s an idea: rather than setting up a hotline, how about just having the Government bloody well pay within 30 days? Is that so hard?
‘Here’s’
i’ll give you a HOT LINE:
- UMUM MA GET SOME MONEY. help a refugeeee outtttttttttttttt!
Just pay the darn Vendors as invoiced as they have delivered their services…what is so difficult about that…are we having money management problems of sorts up there in Cogland…
Cogland
ROFLMAO!!!!
That will last until the proceeds of the bond sale run out. 4 months? 5 months?
Enough time for an election.
The available funding will last until the next Budget. Remember part of the proceeds of the $475 million Bond was used to pay off the $200 million overdraft with BNTB. That can now be reactivated again, increasing the debt by the same amount but without anyone knowing about it.
Even though you may have a hot line try having the people responsible for Acct Payable to imput the information. I know as I see it each day as some of thses air head civil servants sit on their butts and not do their jobs. Hence vendors not paid and cant buy from them.
This is a good thing now they can hold workers accountable I hope but fat chance.
Did they hire more staff for the “hot line”?
Why do they need a hotline? They’re the Government. Don’t they know when they’re late paying something?
It’s all a stupid PR exercise. They just borrowed $475m and they’re paying on time. This hotline will disappear when the money runs out.
Amateurs!
Yes, if we pay your payroll tax even one day late there are huge penalties. I think businesses on this island should turn that right back around on them! How sad is the state of affairs that a hotline is needed to deal with the problem.
Why do we need to spend more money on a hotline to help keep track of accounts payable all of a sudden? Why is this needed? What has our country’s finance department been doing all this time?
WTF! I want answers as to why this is necessary all of a sudden!