Bushfires: NSW Rural Fire Service pledges to clear supplier debts

The NSW Rural Fire Service has deployed extra staff to work through a backlog of invoices.

NSW RFS commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons. Picture: AAP

The NSW Rural Fire Service has deployed extra staff to work through a backlog of invoices — and promised to pay a “significant volume of them” within two weeks — amid mounting frustration from local businesses.

Some business owners claim they have had invoices for almost $500,000 remain outstanding for months for contract work they did for the RFS, covering everything from containment-line work to providing packed lunches for volunteers.

Leslie Jameson, who co-owns the Terminus Hotel in Quirindi with her husband, said they were owed almost $12,000 from providing meals to the local RFS command centre from late October to January. She said the couple, who have two young children, have struggled to pay bills because of the debt.

“It’s been stressful because we depend on our customers,” she said. “We made the RFS a priority and we would drop everything for them every night to serve them.

“We do lose business because you are not serving anyone else, but everyone was happy to prioritise the RFS.

“It’s stressful, the phone calls from vendors and suppliers chasingtheir suppliers, because all your money is tied up with a government department.”

Her business submitted an invoice to the RFS in early November, which was due in December, but has still not been paid. The RFS payment terms for invoices are 30 days. Ms Jameson said the hotel’s suppliers had been understanding as many of their vendors were also owed money by the RFS.

“On top of the drought, it’s tough. We are doing longer hours to keep wages down and then you compound this with extra business, yet you are not getting paid for it,” she said.

She said the payment system was multi-layered and went back and forth between different ­departments in the RFS.

“The whole system is labour-intensive and antiquated. I had one invoice where I put six or seven purchase orders on the same invoice to cut down on the paperwork. I did that and nobody pushed back until it was overdue, when they said ‘we don’t normally do it like that’,” she said.

Apsley Arms Hotel owner Kath Knaggs said she was owed about $1450 by the RFS, and had called for its payment system to be modernised. “I don’t understand why National Parks and Forestry who eat here and sometimes stay with us as well, they pay for it all on the same night on a card,” she said. “Whereas the RFS just want invoices but then they won’t pay anyone.”

An RFS spokesman promised the majority of accounts would be settled in the next fortnight, adding the long bushfire season had resulted in an increased number of contractors used by the service.

“We apologise for any delays while we undertake this process and ask for patience while ­additional personnel have been put on to assist dealing with the backlog,” he said.