Deputy Chair, on an ongoing and continual basis, government discharges its financial responsibility in respect of all debts that are owed. This includes intergovernmental debts, the debts owed by different government departments, debts owed by state-owned enterprises, SOEs, as well as debts owed by and to municipalities. As a result therefore, the amount of debts owed and disbursed between and among government departments and entities changes continuously and rapidly. Therefore, it will not be feasible to provide a precisely quantified amount of debts owed at a given moment as these amounts change on a continuous basis. As we are speaking now, some departments are consuming electricity that they must pay to a certain public entity; they are consuming water that they must pay to a certain public entity or municipality. So these debts are continuously and gradually changing, and it's changing towards the positive ... that is, increasing.
Nevertheless, we must thank the hon member for directing this House to the real need to consider making laws that will regulate and
monitor on an ongoing basis, given the current economic environment of constrained fiscal resources.
At this point, we can state that a system of managing debts owed by different organs of state to each other is indeed in place ... as to know who owes who at a particular point. It is in line with the Public Finance Management Act, PFMA, 1 of 1999.
The National Treasury has advised that aggregate municipal consumer debts amounted to R165,5 billion as at 30 June 2019. Due to escalating consumer debt, many of the affected municipalities have
Of particular concern is the municipal debt owed to Eskom. According to Eskom's 2019 integrated report, the total municipal arrear debt has continued to escalate to unacceptably high levels, amounting to R19,9 billion. This represents 71,7% of total invoiced municipal debt to Eskom.
The top 20 defaulting municipalities constitute 81% of the total invoiced municipal arrear debt with total arrear debt of more than R100 million each. However, indications are such that these figures have increased significantly over the past few months.
Furthermore, according to the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, over R9,7 billion is owed by national and provincial government departments to municipalities, and this [pic]
basic services to our people.
municipalities.
to blame. Some of us are not paying. We owe Eskom.
In improving the current situation of debt by our SOEs, the National Treasury and the Department of Public Enterprises are working on a strategy to reduce the reliance by SOEs on government guarantees. Mechanisms for ensuring that government departments and SOEs settle their debts in time are provided for in section 38 of our PFMA. So, this is provided for in our Act and we must ensure that those who owe, do pay within a stipulated timeframe.
In this regard, accounting officers are required to settle all contractual obligations and pay all monies owed, including intergovernmental monies and claims, within 30 days of the submission of an invoice, or on a specific date agreed to between creditors and suppliers.
Accounting officers and executing authorities must take the necessary disciplinary measures against any official in the service of the department who fails to comply with a provision of the PFMA. Thank you very much. [Applause.]