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The lies they tell you

25th September 2015

By: Terry Mackenzie-hoy

  

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Often, some politician pops up and says something like: “We must create jobs.”

Job creation is the way forward. This is a great and noble plan.

Not very long ago, the British government instituted a programme to demystify the jargon in British government official forms.

An example from the Web:
Before: Title to property in the goods shall remain vested in the company (notwithstanding the delivery of the same to the customer) until the price of the goods comprised in the contract and all other money due from the customer to the company on any other account has been paid in full.
After: We will own the goods until you have finished paying for them.

Thus, the British saw that it was a good idea to make things simpler.

However, unlike the British government, the South African authorities, while claiming that they are very much in favour of job creation, do not help it along. Any company, practice, partnership, and so on, can only grow with new employees. However, to get the new employees, the company must make money. To make money, it must get work. And, unless the owners of the company have rich uncles, some of the work should come from the public sector. But to get work from the public sector is not that easy.

I was reminded of this when, recently, we were deregistered from a vendor database for not having a tax clearance certificate. For those of you who do not run their own business, this is how it is: in the old days, if you wanted to tender on a contract for the provincial administration or municipality, you watched the weekly advertisements in the newspaper asking for tenders. Then you submitted your price. In the tender, you would have to give the price for the last big job you did and somebody who could be contacted as a reference.

This has changed. Now you have to have the following: a black economic empowerment certificate, a letter of good standing with the compensation commissioner, a tax clearance certificate, a letter from the bank saying you have a bank account. If you are going to work on site, you have to have a medical clearance certificate.

Getting all this stuff takes time and costs money. But that is not all. No longer can you look at the advertisements in the newspapers. You have to be registered on a database. This costs R12 000. And if you do not have any of the certificates, then they will not let you have even a peek at the tender.

Now the municipal supply regulations say that you can produce a tax certificate 30 days after receiving a contract award. Some of the municipalities have decided that this is not good enough. Now you have to have the tax clearance certificate before you even get to see the tender, which you will not get to see if you do not have a tax clearance certificate.

But, even better, you have to deal with the South African Revenue Service (Sars). Sometimes Sars’s computers do work and sometimes they do not. It is a fact that, for our now-expired tax clearance certificate, we had to wait five months. It is a fact as it seems we are going to have to wait for our next tax clearance certificate.

Now it so happens that I can buy a Pty Ltd shelf company tomorrow. I can get all the certificates, register on the data bases and use this company to employ me to do the job. It is quicker than waiting for Sars. But surely to heaven, municipalities and the provincial administration do want people to do work? It seems not, which is in itself a bit sinister.

But the people that do bid on their contracts successfully are large practices with efficient administration staff, the cost of which can be covered by the fact that the large practices do not have to be competitive because the smaller practices cannot deal with all the paperwork associated with municipalities and the provincial administration. I do know; recently, we got a job for an American firm. They asked our rate, which they accepted. We did the work to their satisfaction. They paid cash. No paperwork in sight. Pleasure doing business with you, sir.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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