Validity of BEE Verification Certificates        

The Minister of Trade and Industry recently announced that in terms of  the powers vested in him  by the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act of 2003, previous Notice 354 of 2009 issued on 9 April 2009 and Notice 677 of 2009 issued on 5 June 2009 were repealed with effect from 1 August 2009.

Government Notice No. 810 of 2009 now he determines that from 1 FEBRUARY 2010, only BEE Verification Certificates issued by Accredited Verification Agencies or Verification Agencies in possession of a valid pre-assessment letter from the South African National Accreditation System (SANAS) will be valid.

Verification Certificates issued by non-accredited Verification Agencies before 1 FEBRUARY 2010 will remain valid for a period of 12 months from the date of issue.

Verification Certificates issued by Accredited Verification Agencies or Verification Agencies that are in possession of a valid pre-assessment letter from SANAS will remain valid for 12 months from the date of issue.

According to a news article published in ‘Business Day’ of 1 February 2010, the number of BEE Verification Agencies are “worryingly lower than the number of companies they had to accredit, making it impossible for them to certify all local firms as required by law”.

Keith Levenstein, the chief executive of EconoBEE Consulting said there were 26 verification agencies that had to accredit some 500 000 enterprises.  He expressed his concern about the confusion regarding the BEE codes for Tourism, Forestry, Transport and Construction Sectors.  These had been Gazetted but no or few verification agencies have to date been accredited to perform verifications for those sector codes.

Ajay Lalu, a partner at Bravura Consulting, confirmed that there were too few verification agencies in South Africa and they ‘lacked capacity’.

A partial solution possibly to solve the problem could be for the Minister to relax the implementation dates contained in Notice No. 810 of 2009.

Many members of the Association who obtained Verification Certificates issued by non-accredited Verification Agencies before 1 FEBRUARY 2010 and will remain in the window validity period of 12 months after the date of issue.

In terms of Notice No. 810 of 2009 they will be required to obtain Verification Certificates, after coming out of the 12 month window period, from either Accredited Verification Agencies or Verification Agencies in possession of a valid pre-assessment letter from SANAS which will remain valid for 12 months from the date of issue.

Members experiencing problems complying with the requirement of finding either SANAS Accredited Verification Agencies or Verification Agencies in possession of a valid pre-assessment letter from SANAS are invited to provide details to the Association.

Pieter Rautenbach