Davies dissolves SABS board
• Minister places the bureau under the control of administrators
Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies has decided to dissolve the board of the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) with immediate effect and to place the entity under the control of administrators.
His decision follows a deluge of complaints over the underperformance of SABS in conducting tests and issuing certificates for products.
Backlogs and long delays in performing these functions have resulted in businesses losing export orders for products that require a quality assurance from the bureau, which is responsible for assuring the quality and safety of products.
Davies announced his decision — taken after considering oral and written submissions of the board — in a statement on Thursday. Three board members resigned after the minister issued a notice of his intention to suspend the board earlier this month, while other board members made collective and individual responses to the notice.
The minister said that these responses were not persuasive. Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies has decided to dissolve the board of the South African Bureau of Standards with immediate effect.
“I have lost confidence in the board’s ability to manage the entity effectively ... I have decided to place it under the control of administrators.
“I have made this decision because ….. SABS has failed effectively to exercise the fiduciary duties imposed upon them inter alia in terms of the Standards Act and the Public Finance Management Act,” Davies said.
“The malperformance of the board has become a matter of some concern. I have received numerous complaints regarding lack of service delivery by SABS. These have come from both big and small business, including complaints from black industrial
players government is working hard to expand. Local manufacturers are failing to secure supply contracts in local and international markets because of SABS’s underperformance.”
Davies also referred to the certificate of approval that the SABS gave to the Gupta-owned Brakfontein mine in August 2015 for noncompliant coal subsequently delivered to Eskom.
One of his complaints against the board was that it failed to act timeously on this irregularity.
Another complaint was the termination of partial testing by SABS without the support of the department. Partial testing is important for companies that have already had a product tested and just require a new component to be tested. The discontinuation of partial testing by SABS has reportedly had an enormous effect on industry.
Davies said the board’s collective response to his concerns was unsatisfactory and indicated it did not understand its legislative mandate. The representations did not change his view of the board.
“There are four entities reporting to the department that are responsible for quality and standardisation matters. It is my responsibility to ensure that these entities prevent substandard and unsafe products from entering the local market, while at the same time enabling South African exporters to lock into foreign markets. Unfortunately, the performance of SABS in this regard has been inadequate.”
According to Davies’s reply to parliamentary questions, the bureau lost 1,051 customers, resulting in a financial loss of R50m from 2015-16 to end-April 2018. The peak in customer cancellations was in the 2016-17 financial year and was due to customers cancelling permits and certificates with the SABS.