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Cape Town - Trade & Industry Minister
Rob Davies has been asked to declare a “state of emergency” at the new Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC).
After a oversight visit to CIPC by the portfolio committee on trade and industry, committee member
Tim Harris of the DA asked Davies to step in to resolve the crisis at the commission. That's what was meant by “state of emergency”.
In June and July the administration of applications for the registration of companies was brought to a virtual standstill by system problems.
According to information on new registrations from the department of trade and industry in June and July, CIPC was able to handle only 445 applications for registration of companies and close corporations.
This is a significant decline from what its predecessor, the Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office (Cipro), managed to deal with in the same month last year.
In June and July 2010 Cipro finalised 3 900 applications for registration, according to departmental information.
The information shows that in June 2010 Cipro handled 2 738 such applications compared with 196 in June this year.
On May 1, when the new Companies Act came into force, CIPC took over operations from the controversial Cipro.
The department has a turnaround plan to resolve the “crisis” at CIPC within two years, but Harris believes that is too long.
Companies are the building blocks of a country and if new enterprises cannot be registered, this has a direct impact on job creation, he warned.
Harris believes
Astrid Ludin, the new commissioner of companies, is able to sort CIPC out but says she needs ministerial help to remove the many obstacles standing in her way.
How CIPC is doing:- May to July 2010: Cipro, CIPC’s predecessor, finalises 6 120 new registrations.
- May to July 2011: CIPC finalises 2 476 new registrations.
- CIPC has a backlog of 50 000 transactions.
- In May this year 66 000 calls were made to CIPC and 47 500 were unanswered.
- CIPC has 47 vacant positions. (Source: DA)
- Sake24
For business news in Afrikaans, go to Sake24.com.