Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry Companies and Intellectual Property Commission: A Progress Report 24 January 2012 Ms A Ludin (Commissioner)

Objective of the presentation Provide an update on the progress made since July 2011 Outline ongoing challenges and steps being taken

Introduction Challenges CIPC experienced since inception: Weak administrative systems; Backlogs in key areas of registration: CC, company and co-operative registration and amendments to Companies and CCs Problematic IT systems; Inability to respond to queries and calls from the public. Huge initial demand for restoration of deregistered entities coupled with teething problems with Annual Return system and billing; Awareness of the new Act and its requirements

August project to clear backlogs Project to clear backlogs across organisation in August Delivered good results – backlogs cleared in many parts of organisation But results could not be maintained and struggle in some parts of operations have continued

Transactions lodged and completed between 1 May and 31 December 2011 Applications lodged (01/05–31/12) Applications processed (01/05 – 31/12) Applications outstanding (03/01/12) Percent completed CC registration 54,218 100% CC changes 104,441 104,068 373 Company registration 67,657 54,379 13,278 80% Company changes 118,066 113,905 4,161 96% Name reservation 153,269 Co-operative registration 9,864 8,656 1,208 88% Total transactions 507,515 488,495 19,020

Reasons for numbers and steps taken Company registrations and amendments: A lot of errors made during initial period, requiring rework; Pace of worked was slowed down to improve accuracy; Significant increase in number of company applications since September 2011; Additional resources allocated, with more coming on stream in January 2012; Reliance on temporary resources until new structure is in place. Co-operative registration: Number of applications have increased substantially – almost 2,000 more applications in last 4 months; Additional resources have been contracted until the end of March 2012; Temporary resources will be brought on board to allow institution to bridge gap until new structure is in place.

Calls statistics for period 1 June to 31 Dec 2011

Reasons for numbers and steps taken Inefficiencies in call centre and low ability to resolve queries – inconsistent and worsening performance; Initial consideration – outsource the call centre; But difficulties with IT systems and network limit ability for full call resolution when outsourced – essentially would achieve quicker call answering and lower abandonment, but not higher call resolution; Decision that call resolution is most important – decision to “decentralise” the call centre by creating query handling support in business areas; currently works in the IP area, although volume of queries are much lower Initiative to be rolled out in February 2012.

Service delivery improvements Service delivery standards – maximum amount of time a transaction should take – complaints mechanism in place, where service standards are not met; On-line company registration rolled out on 16 January 2012 – slow initial uptake, as we still find some faults in the system; Uniforms for frontline staff to distinguish staff from “agents”; Data quality tender issued and being adjudicated to improve data quality; Building tender issued and in process of final adjudication Designing new organisation – strategy and structure in final stages

Conclusion Much work has been done in the organisation; Things have settled down and there are efforts at continuous improvement; However, much work still remains to build the world class organisation that is required to match the world class legislation; Our journey continues….