The Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) has cleared most of the company registration backlog it inherited from the Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office (Cipro).
Despite this progress, it missed trade and industry minister Rob Davies' July promise that the backlog would be cleared by the end of last month. The CIPC was born after the Companies Act came into effect in May, when Cipro and the Office of Companies and Intellectual Property Enforcement were merged.
In July, the commission said it had a large backlog of more than 30 000 applications from companies wanting to register, or reserve names; a number that was growing as more firms applied. By the end of August, this list had been trimmed to 6 712, says commissioner Astrid Ludin.
Ludin presented an update on the CIPC's progress to the Portfolio Committee of the Department of Trade and Industry yesterday. She said the situation has improved, but there are still problems, which will be resolved in the coming months.
The CIPC has been battling with weak administration systems, growing backlogs, as well as a legacy IT system and an understaffed call centre. Ludin said the backlog of company changes would be sorted out this month.
Outside help
By the end of August, most of the backlog had been cleared. Of the total 256 311 transactions lodged between May and the end of August, only 6 712 - down from the 30 000 it had a few months ago - were outstanding by the beginning of this month, Ludin said.
The office is expecting about 15 000 registration requests this month, which Ludin said will be tackled in September and October, along with the current backlog, with assistance from the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants.
Ludin added that the office would also be able to handle electronic lodgements from next month, which will take pressure off manual capturing. Data input errors will also be sorted out by the end of next month, she said.
To tackle the challenges, targets were set and staff relocated to areas where there was the most need, said Ludin. The office also sought additional capacity, introduced an incentive for August, and extended operating hours, she told the committee.
At the beginning of August, the CIPC had a total of 14 960 e-mails to deal with, which related to general issues and annual returns. Firms are required to submit returns yearly, or the CIPC will assume they are no longer in operation and the company name will be discontinued.
Companies have complained that the complicated and lengthy process has resulted in firms being erroneously deregistered, rendering them unable to trade.
Ludin said all the general e-mailed queries have been resolved and only 1 400 e-mails relating to annual returns still need to be dealt with.
However, the office is still battling with the high number of calls. In August, 45 488 calls came into its call centre, but only 21 268, or 45%, were answered. Ludin says the call centre still requires attention, even though its performance has improved.
Ludin says the CIPC is exploring outsourcing its call centre functions, and a decision will be made soon. The office previously indicated capacity needed to be doubled.
Fundamental work on the design of a new IT system will continue through to the end of the next financial year, said Ludin. She has stated that the office's outdated systems are the biggest challenge.
Predecessor Cipro was unable to implement a R153 million enterprise content management system last year after Davies canned the contract with Valor IT, leading to a court battle. However, as the CIPC is a new organisation, it can move ahead with implementing new systems.
Welcome steps
The official opposition, the Democratic Alliance, has welcomed the progress that has been made in reducing the transaction backlog. Members of Parliament Jacques Smalle and Tim Harris in a joint statement said it was pleasing that the office has improved registrations without compromising security.
“Several South African companies have historically experienced financial losses because of breaches of security, so we are pleased that the minister has today committed to a zero tolerance approach to such breaches.”
Cipro had come under fire after companies on its database were hijacked when fraudsters registered new directors, removing legitimate management from their positions. At least 11 companies suffered this fraud last year.
However, Smalle and Harris argue the call centre must be outsourced before December as it is short 22 staff members, leading to unanswered calls. “This is simply unacceptable.”
The office also needs to increase its staff complement, as vacancies went from 46 in July to 56 in August, said the statement.
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