BEE consultant clarifies self-rating confusion

A RATING company in black economic empowerment (BEE) has been accused of misleading the market in an email promotional flyer saying that “self-rating” is not valid. According to Keith Levenstein, CEO of empowerment consultants, EconoBEE, the market should ignore a statement issued by a member company of the Association of BEE Verification Agencies (ABVA) which said: “Spending money on suppliers who did self-assessment to compile their broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) scorecard does not count as BEE procurement spend on your scorecard”. This is totally wrong, Levenstein added. “Self-rating is actually an essential part of the empowerment procedure for companies. “The facts are that there are no accredited verification agencies, and the gazetted BEE Codes of Good Practice do not make verification mandatory.” He also supported the case by noting that the Competition Commission (CC) has issued the only official legal comment on selfrating in the past year. And in its response, Levenstein added, the CC said: “Currently the department of trade and industry does not make the use of a verification agency mandatory, but the decision whether to accept or reject scorecards produced by independent verification agencies or through selfrating/ self assessment rests on the producer of goods/ services.” Said Levenstein: “Obviously, everybody agrees that any rating needs to be supported by proper and acceptable evidence of a company’s BEE activities – whether it be a “certificate” or a selfassessment. “If you do not have proof of your BEE activities or of BEE spend, you will not be able to claim points. But to suggest that self-rating is not acceptable is completely incorrect, and such statements only tend to spread confusion in the marketplace.”