The title is courtesy of Hendrix at the Isle of Wight. And the time has come to update the blog - to those new subscribers sorry for the delay.
The dti has been very busy recently. They've published two new documents.
The draft Tourism Sector Code: First Charter to be gazzeted (sic) under Section 9 of the B-BBEE Act
I rather like this one. It is very similar to the codes but has a certain tourism angle that does not detract from the codes. It does need a little modification to include section 21 companies (the ATKV are clients of mine and they would like to use it).
BUT
And there always is a but. They have decided that only level 3 contributors may qualify for government work. A noble thought that won't fly. You see by reserving expenditure for a certain class of supplier you are implementing a set-aside policy. And we all know that set-asides have been outlawed and yet they continue to make these pronouncements.
Is there something we should know here? The only way that the government is going to meet its own B-BBEE procurement targets is by making use of set-asides. I know jungle jim wants set-asides to be used, in fact I believe he has gone so far to suggest that government should get rid of the PPPFA and pay a premium to black suppliers. Some people listen to him - I don't, but I miss him when he isn't shooting his mouth off.
What I mean here is, are set-asides going to become part of government procurement and is this charter a hint of what's to come?
You have until 20 August (this year - you must always ask the dti which year when they tell you something will be published by a certain month) to submit your comments to this address. Tell them Caird sent you.
the B-BBEE Verification Manual, 18 July 2008
I happened upon this by accident although I see that the press have picked up on it. There are conflicting opinions about this guideline. It is decidedly thorough, I would suggest that it is too thorough. And yes it will probably identify fronting and other shenanigans that we South African businesses are wont to get up to. But it is going to wreak havoc with the verification industry - the level of verification is akin to an audit and it will be unviable for a verification agency to charge their low-end fees. If followed to the letter it will push up the cost of verification beyond tolerable levels (as if they were tolerable at the moment).
It will only be the large corporates that can afford to pay audit-type prices for this - but will they? Will verification be scuppered altogether as an unnecessary expense?
ABVA thinks this thing is great. Roger - it's not often that I side with you lot, but this manual is going to have a detrimental effect on your industry. Get them to sort it out - we know that verification is a necessary evil but only when it's commercially viable.
And then
We're not going to get accredited agencies by August (this year), SANAS has postponed the announcement again and they don't say why. Roger, whilst you are discussing this with the dti, talk to them about the bloody manual.