The IPO’s team of co-chairs Quinton Fredericks and Thandi Davids, IPO EXCO member Marvin Saven and IPO Executive Director Trish Downing, along with other SASFED member body representatives, attended a meeting hosted by the Acting DDG for the Industrial Finance Division of the DTIC, Ms Susan Mangole on Monday 8 November. The engagement was a follow-up to the meeting hosted by Minister Ebrahim Patel on 14 October and specifically focused on repudiated claims, although it was noted that they are trying to address the backlog of delayed payments and applications as well. Mr Hawie Viljoen, Chief Director: Competitiveness Incentives, joined the meeting representing the DTIC EXCO team made up of evaluators from the 15 other incentive schemes who have been brought in to verify the document packs for repudiated claims in order to close off the claims as speedily as possible.
The DTIC team is currently tracking 21 repudiated projects and were able to confirm that there have been no instances of fraud or fronting. The DTIC team intend to sign off the first batch of claims this week, with the intention to process payments in the week commencing 15 November 2021. Where there are queries around verification of empowered vendors, claim applicants will be paid out the verified portion of the rebate and may then go through a second round of audit for the empowered spends. While this is not ideal, it will ensure that applicants receive at least a good portion of the rebate payment sooner rather than later.
The DTIC team noted that the requirements of the PFMA and the Rebate Guidelines are used to evaluate the effectiveness of the rebate and that the Auditor General requires them to be meticulous when checking paperwork provided by applicants. Thus claim applicants may be requested to supply documentation that cross-verifies aspects of their claim such as a BEE scorecard or affidavit, shareholder certificates, CIPC company declaration and testimonials that may be requested to prove company ownership. There was an acknowledgement of producers’ frustrations in having to resend documentation previously submitted with the Acting DDG noting the department’s problems accessing documents and files while many of them are working from home.
Mr Dimakatso Kgomo from the Applications team was also present in the meeting and undertook to ensure that the next Adjudication Meeting will do its best to address the backlog of applications that have not yet received a ruling. He also confirmed that production companies who have a repudiated claim are not prevented from submitting Form A applications for new productions.
The DTIC team welcomed the offer made by Film Afrika to share their Western Cape verified empowered suppliers database and the IPO will be assisting the rebate administrators to expand this valuable resource. We also look forward to sharing the Transformation Plan for the AV Sector and strategizing on practical solutions to streamline the application processes and reduce the costs of compliance.
The IPO team were heartened by the positive engagement and will attend another check-in session in ten days. If you have any queries regarding this meeting please contact Trish Downing on trish@ipo.org.za or Liezel on administrator@ipo.org.za.