The following is a summary of the main items discussed at a meeting between representatives from various bodies, including SAICA, and the Acting Registrar of Close Corporations and senior CIPRO staff on 15 September 2005.
1. CIPRO website speed and access
Ongoing concerns were expressed by practitioners regarding the slow access to the CIPRO website and the resulting difficulties in submitting annual returns. In response, the head of CIPRO's IT, Colin Nakedi, provided an update on how this issue is being addressed. He stated that SITA had appointed a new internet service provider, Internet Solutions (IS), and that a direct 2mb link would be established between CIPRO and IS. DTI as the custodians of the existing IT infrastructure are aware of these ongoing negotiations. The tentative date for the switch to the direct link was given as 15 October 2005.
CIPRO agreed to keep practitioners informed.
2. Annual returns
It was confirmed that a further extension to 30 November 2005 had been granted for the submission of annual returns for private companies.
It was stated that 21 000 private company annual returns had been lodged to date and that approximately 400 to 500 public company returns were being lodged each month.
The facility for Section 21 companies to lodge returns, but without a fee, was not yet available.
The planned date for close corporation annual returns was February or March 2006.
A practical problem was raised that when submitting the birth date of directors no date other than the 1 st of the month would be accepted. CIPRO agreed to look into this as well as the possibility of extracting the birth date automatically from the ID number.
3. Resignation of Acting CEO of CIPRO
CIPRO announced that Ms Yolisa Maya, the Acting CEO of CIPRO, had recently resigned and that, as an interim measure, a management council had been appointed to oversee CIPRO.
4. CIPRO restructure
It was reported that CIPRO was in the process of a restructure into three main areas: customer service, legal administration and support services. It was stated that during the restructure customer service would not be affected.
5. Co-operatives Act
It was stated that the co-operatives Act had been assented to on 18 August 2005 and would come into operation from early 2006.
6. Electronic lodgement of forms
It was reported that 61% of new CC registrations were being done electronically and that there had been 18 000 lodged since 10 June 2006. 129 000 new CCs had been registered so far in 2005.
7. Processing times
CIPRO reported that there were still some delays in processing, for example CK2s, because of problems with scanning but that this was being addressed by introducing two shifts to do scanning.
CIPRO reported that a recent survey conducted by the World Bank had ranked South Africa 28 th out of 137 countries in terms of the ease of doing business.
8. SARS/CIPRO link
A special task team had been set up by SARS and CIPRO to address the ongoing problems with the link between the two organisations. It was stated that the common formatting of data had been addressed and that the link should be operational by the end of September 2005.
It was stated that CIPRO was looking at inserting the Income Tax registration number of new companies and CCs onto registration certificates.
It was stated that stakeholders had not been invited to the last task team meeting, as had been agreed, because it had been called at such short notice.
9. Accounting Officer search facility
CIPRO is looking at setting up a facility on their website which would enable practitioners to produce a list of CCs for which they are the registered Accounting Officer.
Practitioners stated that there were often timing delays in reflecting a resignation as accounting officer on the current search facility. It was greed that examples should be submitted to CIPRO cbekker@cipro.gov.za
10. Acceptance by banks of electronic registration certificates
CIPRO stated that a meeting was being set up with the Banking Council to address this issue. It was noted that previous meetings in this regard had been held with the Registrar of Banks.
11. Communication
CIPRO would continue to communicate via its website and was also looking at other options for members of the public not connected to the internet, for example, the print media.
12. Processing errors
CIPRO stated that processing errors by CIPRO staff would to a large extent be addressed by the electronic lodgement of forms.
13. Decentralisation of CIPRO facilities.
Problems with the CIPRO internet bandwidth had delayed the roll-out of CIPRO service centres at post offices around the country. This strategy would be implemented as soon as possible and could include a service facility at certain SARS offices.
14. CIPRO call centre
Practitioners re-iterated their frustration with the CIPRO call centre and the fact that agents were seldom able to provide help and that calls to the back office staff were very seldom returned.
CIPRO reported that a new call centre strategy had been finalised and needed to be approved by the DTI. Once approved it would go out to tender. The new strategy was aimed at improving the customer experience with the call centre and would include comprehensive training of call centre agents. It was stated that the call centre was currently receiving about 12 000 calls per week.
The target date for a noticeable improvement in the call centre was mid 2006. In the meantime practitioners were encouraged to use the CIPRO email facility.
15. Corporate law reform
It was confirmed that CIPRO were still fully involved in the reform process.
16. Next meeting
It was agreed that the next meeting would take place on 24 November 2005 and that the practitioner bodies represented at the meeting would host a lunch after the meeting for those attending the meetings.
Prepared by: SAICA
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