B-BBEE advisory firm BeeSure Consulting has published an eight-point self-check for companies that want to know whether their scorecard is leaking points, drawn from the pattern the firm sees when it repairs scorecards. "Levels are seldom lost in one bad decision," says director Rachéll van Staden, who leads legal structuring and delivery. "They leak away in small gaps, where the company spends the money but never gets the points. Every one of these can be checked internally at no cost."
The eight signs:
One: A level was lost to a floor nobody watched. Certain elements carry a floor, called a sub-minimum, and missing it on one element drops the whole scorecard a level.
Two: Nobody has confirmed in writing which code the company is measured under, the generic codes or a sector code such as the ICT Sector Code.
Three: Training ran all year but earned few points, because the codes value kinds of training very differently and evidence decides whether it counts at all.
Four: The training reports filed with the SETA and the B-BBEE evidence file tell different stories, and verifiers cross-reference them.
Five: Supplier development is arranged in the final weeks of the financial year, when there is no time left to vet beneficiaries, sign agreements and gather the evidence a verifier will ask for, so spend goes unrecognised and deadlines get missed.
Six: B-BBEE strategies only get attention in the weeks before a company’s financial year-end.
Seven: There has never been a dry run before the real verification.
Eight: The board sees the level once a year, after the fact. "No CFO would report profit that way, discovered after close with no forecast in between," says Van Staden. "A scorecard decides which revenue a company can compete for and deserves the same discipline as a P&L."
Levels are seldom lost in one bad decision. They leak away in small gaps, where the company spends the money but never gets the points.
Van Staden says the results are easy to read. "If none of the signs apply, the scorecard is probably well run. If even one applies, it is worth a closer look, because that is where points usually go missing. If three or more apply, the company is almost certainly paying for points it is not getting."
The firm suggests HR teams start with leak three: list the year’s training, then check which category of the codes each intervention falls under and whether the evidence for it is on file.
Recognise any of these signs? Contact BeeSure Consulting for a free, confidential second opinion on your scorecard. No cost, no obligation, and the review is independent of your current adviser or verification agency. E-mail rachell@beesureconsulting.co.za or phone (084) 637 2006.
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