- Open administration
The AOC uses generative AI to analyze the comments associated with the 20.000 monthly satisfaction surveys
In 2024, the city councils, county councils and provincial councils of Catalonia have paid their suppliers at 53 days on average. This is an excellent figure that leaves behind the stereotype that public administrations are bad payers. Thus, the public sector pays its bills faster than the private sector, specifically 27 days earlier, according to data from thereport of the Spanish Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises (CEPYME), in which (according to data from the 2nd quarter of 2024), companies pay, on average, within 80 days.
This result in the local administration has been achieved thanks to the obligation of electronic invoicing and digitalization that streamlines the entire internal process. And, above all, to the liquidity and time control policies promoted by the European Commission following the economic crisis of 2008.
The ultimate goal of the digital transformation of the Administration is to improve people's lives. In this case, to improve the lives of companies by guaranteeing their financing and, therefore, their economic activity.
The Top 10
The ten Catalan local public administrations that pay the fastest are:
| Ten | |
| Viladasens City Council | 12 |
| Town Hall of Fontanals de Cerdanya | 13 |
| Isona and Conca Dellà Town Hall | 14 |
| Llobera Town Hall | 14 |
| City Council of Riner | 14 |
| Castellví de Rosanes City Council | 14 |
| Celrà City Council | 14 |
| Town Hall of Torroella de Montgrí | 15 |
| City of Clariana de Cardener | 15 |
| Tortellà Town Hall | 16 |
You can check the list detailing the payment period of the municipalities of Catalonia.
The payment term of local administrations has been improving year after year since 2016. In this period it has been reduced by 22 days, which implies a 29% reduction in time.
The AOC pays in 14 days
Regarding the AOC we have paid our suppliers to 14 days, a figure that would place us among the public administrations with the shortest payment period.
The AOC manages all invoices with a completely digital process: entry registration, accounting, signature holder, approval, signature and communication of the change of status.
How did we calculate the payment term?
We have calculated the payment term based on the information on invoices managed by the AOC's e-FACT service, which has detailed and rigorous information on the date of entry and the date of payment. To make this calculation, we have not used the legal concept of "half payment period"which the municipal auditors report since it has several calculation systems that are not so understandable for companies. In any case, the data communicated by the auditors are, in general, better than those presented in this study because, for example, they count the period from the date of approval of the invoice (not from the date of registration) and there can be a delay of up to thirty days.
The calculation did not include administrations that have low-quality data, basically because they do not automatically update the status of payments from accounting to e-FACT.
About the e-FACT service
The e-FACT service began operating in 2011, managing 4.000 invoices. In 2024, it managed almost 5 million invoices with a turnover of 36.680 billion euros. These invoices come from more than 95.000 companies and are intended for 1.718 public entities, generating savings of more than 51 million euros by managing them electronically versus the paper version.