A flagship Tory-led Welsh council has found itself at the back of the queue when it comes to paying up. Monmouthshire CC lingers woefully at the bottom of the league of Welsh councils for paying invoices on time. Just days after councils pledged to fight the recession by paying up earlier, it was revealed the council paid less than 40% of its invoices, for everything from school meal suppliers to management consultants, within the prescribed 30-day period. According to figures from the Local Government Data Unit – Wales, the council paid just 39.9% of its bills on time. Pembrokeshire came out on top, paying 98% on time. Barrie Pearson, head of revenues, exchequer and ICT at the council, said: ‘The deterioration in performance has been recognised through internal monitoring, and is being addressed. It arose following a major system implementation of purchase order processing (POP) and, in such circumstances, a fall in performance is not untypical. ‘The target we have set ourselves for 2008/09 is 85%.'