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Members of the public are called to submit comments and inputs on Trade and Industry Minister, Dr Rob Davies' notice to amend provisions of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) codes of good practice that will allow registered auditors to conduct B-BBEE verifications and issue verification certificates. The amended provision was published on 31 December 2010.
In terms of the current status quo, only B-BBEE status level certificates issued by Verification Agencies (VAs) that have been accredited by the South African National Accreditation System (SANAS) are valid.
The result of this amendment is that with effect from 1 April 2011, registered auditors who have attended competency training on BBBEE will be able to apply to the Independent Regulatory Board of Auditors (IRBA) before they are approved to issue verification certificates.
In July 2009, the Minister issued a Gazette Notice in terms of which the validity verification certificates issued by verification agencies was extended until February 2010, as a result of which all certificates issued by SANAS accredited verification agencies and those verification agencies in possession of a valid pre-assessment letter could still issue valid verification certificates.This notice is now repealed by the 31 December 2010 notice.
The amendment of the notice also means that Section 10 of Code 000 of the generic BBBEE Codes of Good Practice (Dealing with the Framework for the Measurement of BEE Verification Agencies) will be replaced with statement 005 that is issued in accordance with Section 9 (1) of the BBBEE Act.Statement 005 deals with the requirements for Accreditation of Verification Agencies and determines the procedure that needs to be followed should other Regulatory Bodies like IRBA wish to have their members approved to issue Verification Certificates.
Interested persons and members of the public have until 28 February 2011 to make inputs and comments.
Comments and inputs should be submitted for the attention of Xolisile Zondo and/or Liso Steto, to: The BEE Unit, Private Bag X84, Pretoria, 0001, or via e-mail: bee-verification@thedti.gov.za.