(t)roshcan I mean, (t)rashcon actually what I really mean is Roshconfused

My mood is often dictated by the performance of the Proteas.  I am pleased to announce that I am in a vilely foul mood.  Ponting declared at tea time on day 3 leaving our esteemed team to either bat for almost two days or hit five hundred and something runs in that time.  Brilliant captaincy from the Australian - now with Smith out of the game with a wounded finger, can the remaining 10 batsmen pull it together to force a draw.  I watch the live scorecard on Cricinfo.com anxiously.  Luckily for my mood I managed to find a streamed recording of one of the last gigs Peter Green ever played with Fleetwood Mac.  If I ignore the tragedy that is Green and revel in the music, my pissed-offness diminishes.

My last post had a sort of postscript where I mentioned something about an alleged Sun International procurement practice.  I received a very friendly call from Sun International asking me where I heard about this - they maintain that it isn't the case.  I told the guy to send me an email clarifying it and I'd post it up here.

Seeing that this blog does have the potential to shake things up a bit I thought I'd have a little go at a BEE declaration form that was sent out by Roshcon.  I tried to find it on their website and to be fair to them the one tender I did find had this written about BEE

Roshcon has implemented a program of economic empowerment in its procurement strategies. In this regard, service providers are required to indicate their involvement, current and planned, with black business and professionals.  This will form an important part of the evaluation criteria to be used.  If your company is BEE compliant, please provide us with a rating certificate, or any other supporting documents as per score cards requirements (sic).

You can read this in numerous ways - but you must remember that Roshcon belongs to Eskom and it is breath of extremely fresh air to see them ask this question.  By the way, a strong rumour suggests that Eskadaat 6 is going to be phased out by May this year.

The second page of this document then contains a BEE Declaration Form and this is where it gets very exciting.  It definitely belongs to Roshcon because that word is mentioned twice on the page. 

Let us start on paragraph 2.1.2 and I quote

(Company name) is/is not a Black Economic Empowered Supplier as defined by the Affirmative Procurement Act and as per the DTI Codes of Good Practice

WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT SENTENCE MEAN?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Firstly - what is the Affirmative Procurement Act?  I think we all know that they actually mean the PPPFA, even though nowhere in that act do they refer to the terms Affirmative Procurement Act.  If you want to split hairs  - the word "affirmative" doesn't even appear in the act at all. It seems that this is a relatively common mistake - even that esteemed seat of learning, UKZN missed the bus on this one.  This is plain inexcusable.

AND THEN IF THEY HAVEN'T CAUSED ENOUGH CONFUSION

 They then suggest that the "Affirmative Procurement Act" and the DTI Codes of Good Practice have the same definition.  I'm bowled over!   Surely it can't be that they haven't read any of the acts/regulations/codes?  I was fortunate to meet with Lourens Mare of the Jewellery Council the other day and he gave me this document from the DTI which shows the difference in definitions.  Topically enough, our man jungle has got himself an new acronym and is going to go to JZ to get him to align the PPPFA and B-BBEE Act - I'd love to post the link but the Times website is kaput.

And now onto paragraph 2.1.4

(Company name) shall continue to be a black supplier and or/Historically Disadvantaged South African Company, for the duration of this contract  with Roshcon

This is not so difficult to understand if you read the English.  But is this what they mean? We all know that HDSA as defined by the PPPFA includes white women.  I was flummoxed at this one - I didn't know what to advise the client that sent me this form.  They are a white-woman owned company but if this is disclosed after the contract is signed will they be disqualified because they aren't black?

Then it really gets confusing - paragraph 3.

Should (company name) for any reason cease to be a Black Economic Empowered company as per the DTI codes, after being awarded a contract, ROSHCON shall in its sole discretion be entitled to .......... sue for damages, or cancel the contract

What are we talking about here?  Paragraph 2.1.3 clearly states that "BEE owned status is determined by, amongst other (sic) by the following elements" and then it lists a series of elements, some of which look like they belong in the codes, the rest are derived from anecdotal references to empowerment. 
That being noted can we be sure that a BEE companyis a broad-based scorecard-bearing thingamajig or a black-owned company?

I'm confused by this declaration form and this is my business.

Again - I throw it out to anyone.  Can you help us with this?  Or is this an old document that should not have been attached to the tender?  Either way it has to go.