A cross-Department review of prompt payment performance was carried out in 2024/2025 and a key recommendation from this review was the establishment of a Prompt Payment Officer Network, to aid and encourage improved payment performance across the Public Sector.
My Department compiles a consolidated report of the payment performance of all Government Departments every quarter showing payments made within 15 days and 30 days. The format of the consolidated report was changed for Q2 2025 to show only the number of invoices and the percentage of payments made within 15 days and 30 days based on the number of invoices.
The rationale to exclude monetary values was simply that listing this data does not provide any additionality to the consolidated report as the values are not comparable between Departments given their varying sizes and different votes. The core point of this report is to capture payments made within 15 days and those made between 15 and 30 days thus providing greater insight on compliance with prompt payment obligations.
The decision to streamline the consolidated report was made at the first Prompt Payment Officer Network meeting in June 2025. The format of the report was once again discussed within this group at its subsequent meeting in November 2025, with the consensus being that the new streamlined format of the report be retained over the old format.
My Department and the other members of the Prompt Payment Network remain fully committed to open and transparent reporting. No formal assessment on the areas referenced has been carried out as yet. My Department will bring the Deputy's question to the attention of the Network for its information. In the meantime, more data fields such as monetary values are readily available and accessible on each individual department’s website.
