Top councillor angry over late invoice payments

A TOP THURROCK councillor has expressed his frustration at the number of late payments paid by Thurrock Council to customers.

Portfolio holder for Central Services, cllr Phil Smith made the comments at a meeting of the council Cabinet.

Each month, the council deliver a report to the cabinet called the corporate scorecard which highlights the standards across a number of departments using a (red, amber, green) traffic light system.

Amongst the council functions that remains in the red category is invoice payment.

The target for the council is to pay 97% within 30 days. The reality is that only 84% are on-target.

The report also states that: “The implementation of the upgraded Oracle system has, in the first quarter, had a detrimental effect on this indicator due to the system being shut down followed by numerous software issues.

“However, this process will begin to see improvement from October and will perform better towards end of the year.”

Cllr Smith said: “I would also advise officers to stop raising orders without first obtaining a purchase order.

“This performance indicator will improve and we must do everything in our power to make it happen.”