Birmingham City Council's system for paying invoices is back on
track, the authority's cabinet will be told today (Monday).
A report to the
council's cabinet will
say 94% of its bills were paid on time in May - "the best figure
recorded in at least three years by the council".
Computer Weekly had reported on problems with the payment of
invoices by what is Europe's largest local authority since it
introduced a new SAP-based financial system.
The council had said about 10,000 invoices were "stuck" in the
system in May.
The council initially said it had cleared a backlog of invoices
that built up when it implemented its Voyager system in October
2007, but then admitted that this led to a build-up of unpaid
invoices "further along in the payments system".
It set 13 May as "approvals day" to clear backlogs and to
"identify and permanently eradicate any remaining payment issues".
Today's annual update to the cabinet on what the council calls
"business transformation programmes" suggests a remarkable
turnaround in its invoice-payments system.
The number of unpaid invoices stood at 18,000 in February, with
the council suffering the embarrassment of
bailiffs visiting its on at least one occasion to pursue a
debt.
Glyn Evans, the council's corporate director of business change,
said the "approvals day" had cleared 2,000 of the then 10,000
backlog, and the authority paid 94% of invoices within 30 days
during that month.
