Jersey's Treasury Minister admits overdue government payments are 'unacceptable'

It comes after numerous companies reported not being paid on time for their services by Jersey's government. Credit: ITV Channel

Jersey's Treasury Minister has admitted that overdue government payments are "clearly unacceptable" after numerous companies reported not being paid on time for their services.

Deputy Ian Gorst says they are aware of the continued issues with their new IT system that went more than £30 million over budget and was supposed to streamline services.

"It is not acceptable that suppliers are not being paid on a timely basis, and we have put in place urgent measures to address this," Deputy Gorst said.

"The changeover has also brought to our attention a number of overdue invoices from previous years. This is clearly unacceptable and falls short of the standards we set ourselves as a government, and that suppliers rightly expect of us."

He adds that he is confident these issues are now being addressed and has asked suppliers to be patient while they work to fix the problem.

The government says it has redeployed people to more than double the team tackling the invoice backlog from 9 to 23 staff and is making daily payment runs.