Before threatening to sue, it may be worth giving the DSA Officer at the
LEA a ring to check they have the invoice and see if there's any particular
reason why it hasn't been paid. We find that if an invoice can't be paid
for some reason and we send follow up correspondence to the institution
requesting further information it often goes to the Finance Office who
seem to file it away in the Nowhere Else to Put It File (every office has
one). It may be that every time the LEAs receive a reminder, they reply
asking for further info, the Finance Office file it and then you send
another reminder.
This approach may generate quicker results, and leads to better working
relationships between assessment centres and LEA Officers.
That said, I'm not defending late payments and if you've already tried this
it's worth following Mick's advice.
Kath Henderson
Team Leader - Student Support
Education Department
Overseas House
PO Box 191
Quay Street
Manchester Tel. No: 0161 234 7076
M60 3ST Fax No: 0161 234 7004
Michael Trott
<Ukassessments@AO To: [log in to unmask]
L.COM> cc:
Sent by: Subject: Re: Late payments from LEAs
"Discussion list
for disabled
students and
their support
staff."
<DIS-FORUM@JISCMA
IL.AC.UK>
20/01/2004 18:35
Please respond to
"Discussion list
for disabled
students and
their support
staff."
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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