Mark,
Further to my remarks yesterday I received the following advice from the
Office of the Auditor General in response to a problem I had getting money out of
a reserch council. Now resolved by a letter threatening to sue them
* Guidance on financial procedures to be followed within
government bodies is set out in Government Accounting (available on the
internet at www.government-accounting.gov.uk ). Chapter 22 sets out the
policies relating to procurement and Annex 22.2 specifically gives
Procurement Policy Guidelines - paragraph 6.5 states:
"Prompt payment. Departments and their agencies should pay their
suppliers on time. Where there is no contractual provision or other
understanding, departments should pay suppliers within 30 days of
receipt of goods or services, or the presentation of a valid invoice or
similar demand for payment, whichever is the later"
* Further guidance on supplying government bodies is provided by
the Office of Government Commerce ( www.ogc.gov.uk ) under the topic
"Supplying Government".
* All government bodies are subject to the Late Payment of
Commercial Debts Act 1998. This Act enables a business to claim interest
if another business (including Government Departments and their
agencies, etc.) pays its bills late. Further information is available on
the Office of Government Commerce's website at the above link.
Therefore they are pretty much obliged to pay or querry an invoice within 30
days and you can charge interest on outstanding debts. The LEA officer would
be very embarrased trying to explain why they had to waste public money on
interest to their auditors.
Mick Trott
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