It's been a while since my last post. I've been doing a lot of work on public private partnerships which I'll blog about at some stage. To my mind these are the only way that we are going to get the economy going. We are going to be hosting a two day conference on PPPs in municipalities in November – I'll blog on this later.
There was an article a few weeks ago in the FM speculating as to the future of BEE. It suggested that Rob Davies wasn't that interested in it. Zuma's speech to black professionals in Sandton last night make it clear that he's not about to scrap it nor is he going to allow it to fall by the wayside.
This is what he said (bold is my emphasis):
Our view is that we have a good BBBEE policy. The current BBBEE framework is adequate. It is inclusive and balanced. We may just need to sharpen implementation and communication. The Department of Trade and Industry is attending to this aspect.
The seven elements of the BBBEE scorecard are a response to the initial narrow BEE, which focused only on ownership and management control in enterprises.
In addition, very few people realise that the current BBBEE framework provides for co-operatives.
In our view, BBBEE must reinforce:
* Skills and rural development.
* Enterprise and socio-economic development.
* Job creation through procurement and entrepreneurship.
Access to government procurement opportunities by black firms has been raised as a serious challenge.
Government is working hard to ensure that this is being addressed adequately. Already, the key objectives of the Preferential Procurement Element of the Codes of Good Practice promote the use of black owned professional service providers and entrepreneurs.
In this regard, black owned professional service providers are recognized as value adding enterprises for purposes of the BBBEE scorecard.
We need to ensure that State-Owned enterprises give effect to this in a meaningful way. This includes ensuring that government departments allocate and implement the targeted procurement services for black professionals.
We are planning to hold a National Summit on BBBEE on May 2010. This summit will be able to give government a sense of progress on the implementation of BBBEE.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are meeting with you this evening because you have a role to play in the implementation of the country’s programme of action.
We need to work together to improve government’s service delivery mechanisms. We appreciate the fact that you constantly inform us of areas where government needs to increase the pace, or improve the quality of service. Remember that this is your government. Working together we can do more to effect the desired improvements!
We noted your concern raised at the last meeting about the unacceptable delays by government departments in paying black businesses and SMMEs for services rendered.
Treasury Regulations state that all payments must be settled within 30 days from the receipt of an invoice or, in the case of civil claims, from the date of settlement or court judgment.
The exception is only in cases where parties have agreed to an alternative arrangement. In addition, the BBBEE Codes of Good Practice have made provision for shorter payment periods in order to assist to alleviate cash flow burdens faced by SMMEs.
The Minister for Performance Monitoring and Evaluation in The Presidency has written to all national and provincial departments and municipalities, and urged Ministers, Premiers, MECs and mayors via Premiers, to ensure that heads of departments comply with the regulations.
The Departments and municipalities are expected to provide feedback to the Minister at the end of July.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are also working hard to promote gender equity in the economic sphere.
We want to emphasise greater focus on entrepreneurship development for women, especially in the male-dominated construction and property industries amongst others.
However, we must add that while the 50% gender representation policy of the ANC and government are commendable, there needs to be a way to encourage the private sector to do likewise.
Better enforcement of the provisions of the Employment Equity Act could go a very long way towards achieving this objective.
Let us see what happens now.