New act, new codes and new challenges.

On 10th August 2012 cabinet announced that it had approved the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Amendment Act which was published in December 2011 and now cabinet has approved the revised codes of good practice for public comment.

Salient features;

• Reduction of the generic scorecard to five elements, with Employment Equity and Management Control being consolidated, and Preferential Procurement and Enterprise Development merged to form a Supplier Development Element.
• Ownership has been broadened to include designated groups in the main points
• The thresholds for Exempted Micro Enterprises and Qualifying Small Enterprises (QSE) have been adjusted.
• All companies, except Exempted Micro Enterprises, will be required to comply with the five elements of the B-BBEE scorecard
• B-BBEE recognition levels status table has been revised.
• Priority elements have been introduced, namely ownership, skills development and supplier development, and large enterprises are to comply with all three priority elements. The priority scores of entities that do not comply with sub-minimum requirements in each priority will be discounted.
• Entities that are 100% black-owned will qualify as Level 1, while entities that are more than 50% black-owned will qualify as Level 2.
• Framework for the accreditation of B-BBEE Verification Agencies to extend to the Independent Regulatory Body of Auditors
• Alignment of the B-BBEE Employment Equity elements with the Employment Equity Act and the Skills Development Elements has been aligned to the New Skills Development Strategy
  

Although the revised codes at this point in time are only for comment, it is very important to note that changes are now inevitable. Overall it is going to become more difficult to achieve a high score even though customers will still demand a high score. Since changes are inevitable and those changes will make becoming BEE complaint more difficult it now becomes absolutely vital to prepare for and achieve a good scorecard before the new codes are finalised.

Prepare for Verification now! One week to go before the Johannesburg event where we will show you the tips and tricks to earn maximum points before the revised codes kick in.

While there is demand for a BBBEE Scorecard someone will be taking advantage, shouldn’t that someone be you...

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