VIEWS
BEE: Inforcomm on BEE
Recent Gauteng Business News
Inforcomm welcomes the decision by Cabinet to align Treasury procurement regulations with the BEE Act.
Inforcomm BEE Verification welcomes the decision by Cabinet to approve the alignment of the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act (PPPFA), the Act that public entities use to procure goods and services, and the Broad-Based Black Economic empowerment Act (BEE Act).
Inforcomm has consistently led the call for the alignment of these two Acts in order to ensure that government departments and municipalities include BEE when awarding points for procurement of goods and services. In late February this year before Minister Pravin Gordhan presented his budget speech in parliament, Inforcomm accused Treasury of going slow on BEE because of the delay in aligning these two Acts.
Before this decision, public entities only considered BEE when issuing licenses and entering into partnerships, and not when procuring goods and services from the private sector. This left the private sector and state owned entities to promote BEE, even though government should be leading by example.
The alignment of these two Acts will do away with the old narrow-based 90/10 and 80/20 calculation of procurement scoring system by public entities. This scoring system allocated 10/20 points depending on the size of the tender to black ownership of the company, whereas the incorporation of BEE into the scoring system will ensure that procurement points takes into account all seven elements of BEE such as ownership by black people, black directors, employment of black staff, training of black employees, procurement of goods from black suppliers, the support to small black companies and the upliftment of black communities.
The alignment of these two Acts will also ensure that it now become compulsory for all trading entities to be verified and at all times have in position a valid BEE certificate. This will increase the level of compliance to the BEE codes by the private sector and ensure that when the second phase of higher BEE targets begins in 2012, government can report and evaluate compliance to the first five years of the implementation of BEE.
Andile Tlhoaele is the former chairperson of the verification industry body ABVA and is the owner of Inforcomm, a SANAS accredited verification company.
Inforcomm promotes BEE compliance.
Business News Sector Tags: Infotech| BBBEE|