At the beginning of the year, the NRW police introduced a new accounting system. This led to payment delays in the first few weeks. At peak times, more than 25,000 invoices were waiting to be processed. (See also this article).
“One thing is absolutely clear: anyone who makes legitimate claims against the North Rhine-Westphalian police will get their money,” says Rainer Pannenbäcker, Director of the State Office for Central Police Services NRW (LZPD NRW). “It's not about a lack of liquidity, but about the introduction and implementation of a new, centralized accounting system.”
The LZPD has a particular focus on the functionality of the police. All issues that affect the police's ability to function are a particular focus during processing.
Every day, the LZPD receives around 2,300 invoices that need to be processed. With additional personnel resources and the prioritized processing of dunning procedures, the numbers are now declining. However, 23,000 invoices still have to be processed at present.
New external service provider
The LZPD NRW had engaged an external service provider to support invoice processing since the beginning of the year. At the beginning of March, the LZPD terminated its collaboration with this service provider due to contractually agreed services that were not provided. A new company has now been entrusted with the task since last week. More than 70 employees are now helping to clear the backlog.
Dunning procedure preferred
In addition, the LZPD ensures that dunning procedures are processed quickly. In recent weeks, companies and businesses, as well as police employees who are reimbursed by the authorities for travel expenses or allowances, for example, have frequently complained about delays in the payment of invoices. The dunning procedures are given priority. External business customers still have the option of contacting the LZPD by email in the event of payment delays: EPOSAnfrage.LZPD [at] polizei.nrw.de (EPOSAnfrage[dot]LZPD[at]polizei[dot]nrw[dot]de).
The total budget of the North Rhine-Westphalian police amounts to more than three billion euros a year. Over 30,000 business partners work with the NRW police. The 100 major suppliers of the NRW police had already been informed of potential problems in advance of the system changeover.