MP: Govt slow to pay bills

FINANCE and Planning Minister Rainbo Paita has admitted to the Government’s poor record of paying its bills.
He was responding to a statement by State Enterprises Minister William Duma on the status of state owned enterprises (SOEs).
Duma said: “SOE debt continued to present challenges to Kumul Consolidated Holdings and General Business Trust.
“Cash flow pressures are increased due to excessive cost of borrowing and stressed balance sheets make it difficult to expand the businesses.
“Our SOEs are in the condition they are today due to a history of poor accountability, poor investment decisions by previous boards and management.”
Paita told Parliament yesterday that while SOEs had reputations for being unprofitable and unable to render their mandated services consistently and effectively, they were also hamstrung because the Government did not pay them what was owed on time or at all.
“Sometimes we blame SOEs but we (Government) are the biggest debtors in terms of payments of bills for water, power and other utilities,” Paita said.
He commended Duma for reforming the SOEs, adding that the Government would continue to support the nine entities through major public investment programme (PIP) interventions.
According to Duma, the net value of the assets of SOEs and KCH was K6.1 billion as of September this year.
The nine SOEs employ in total 7,100 people nationwide.