Credit & Debit

A puzzling situation of give and take is frequently in the news these days. No, not April's Fool news. Assume you're a supplier of goods or services to one of the Italian public companies. Health care, trains, you name it. Whether at state, region, province, commune or city level, it doesn't matter. All public stuff. Assume you MUST pay all your taxes in due time. Well, that's NOT much of an assumption and, of course you do. Now assume the government pays you for your supplied goods and services. Well, now that IS just an assumption. You are one among 215,000 suppliers affected by a crippled, irrational system. The total past due amount that public companies owe to suppliers is 90 billion Euro. On average, a supplier is being paid after 500 days after delivery. Many cases report past due payments of 1300 days and my maths translate this into 3 years, 5 months and 3 weeks. As a comparison, consider that France pays after 65 days and Germany after 35 days. Each of those 215,000 suppliers has an average credit of 418,000 Euro. It's interesting to note that credit and debit aren't managed as plus/minus on the same book and many suppliers slip into a paradox leading to bankruptcy and countless lost jobs. Some say Italy will make it through tough times. How?