The ball is in your court BRPs

On 3 September, Turnaround Talk published an article regarding the announcement made by the CIPC regarding the licencing of business rescue practitioners.

There were a number of BRPs who were left off the list. The CIPC said that these BRPS were left off because their licences have expired. After engagements with BRPs in the industry, those who were excluded said that they were unaware that there was an issue with their licence or that it was reaching its expiration date.

We sent a list of questions to the CIPC to discuss and clarify this issue. The responses below were provided by CIPC Spokesperson Vuyani Nkohla.

Question 1
The CIPC has recently released a list of licenced practitioners that has excluded a number of practitioners whose licences have apparently lapsed. Has the CIPC been engaging with the BRPs in question regarding this?  

The CIPC issued BRP’s with licenses that clearly indicate when they are going to expire. BRP licenses are valid for a period of three years after which they need to be renewed. Therefore, contents of BRPs certificates indicate when the certificate will expire.

Question 2
Has the CIPC been engaging with member associations over the exclusion of BRPs? Was this issue raised at the BLRC?

Yes, the CIPC constantly engages with BRLC members. In fact, it was the members of the BLRC who suggested that CIPC should publish the lists of licenced practitioners on the CIPC website so that it is public knowledge regarding who is licensed.

There is no exclusion of BRPs by the CIPC outside of the expired licence issue.

Question 3
Please consider the following situation: a BRP is in possession of a valid licence and gets excluded from the list by the CIPC.

As pointed out, if there is an exclusion of a BRP whose license has not expired, it will be a pure oversight on the part of the CIPC.

• How long will it take these BRPs to be reinstated on the CIPC list of licenced practitioners?
  • In the event that there was an oversight, it should be resolved quickly and a new list will be published by the CIPC.  This should not take more than 72 hours;
• What happens to BRPs who have a licence, have already started rescue, and have had their  licence lapse while still implementing the rescue?
  • They must renew their licenses as soon as possible.

Question 4
It seems as if the CIPC excluded these BRPs from their list without any consultation or forewarning. Some of the BRPs that Turnaround Talk has been in touch with have said that there was no warning from the CIPC regarding issues with their licences. Does the CIPC provide BRPs with any forewarning that their licence needs renewing? Or is it a case of it is the sole responsibility of BRPs to manage this process?

The business rescue licencing processes is a manual process and CIPC ensures that all the applications received are dealt with within the shortest possible time-frame. We do our best to ensure this.

The CIPC issues the BRP’s with licenses with the date when it is going to lapse. Like your driver’s license, there is no notification when this is going to lapse.

However, the CIPC prides itself in innovation and service delivery. We have procured a new system of registering business rescue licenses electronically. This system has the ability to send notifications to BRPs when their license needs renewing.

Question 5
In 2017, the CIPC set up the Business Rescue Liaison Committee (BRLC). What are the latest developments when it comes to this process?

Business Rescue Liaison Committee was established in 2017, and the committee is progressing well.  

In the past, we used to have BRP’s licensed in an individual capacity; since the establishment of the BRLC, the professional bodies that the BRP belongs to applied to be licensed with the CIPC so that all licenced BRPs must belong to a professional body that is accredited by the Commission.

We have good relationships with industry stakeholders (industry bodies and BRPs) and matters of common interests are discussed. This includes advising the Commission on Business Rescue related matters including the legislation.

Question 6
The purpose of the BRLC was to find a common ground between the CIPC and industry associations when it comes to the regulation of the industry and how to improve industry regulation. Surely the issue of licenced practioners and the renewal of licenced practitioners should have been discussed by the BRLC at some point?

It was discussed and there no issues raised. We were shocked to learn about the issues that you have raised.

Question 7
Where do we go from here with regards to the licenced professionals issue? BRPs obviously want to go about their business comfortable that they will not be suddenly excluded from the list of licenced professionals without timeous engagement from the CIPC?

As answered above, no exclusion was made outside of expired licences. There were many publications made by the CIPC before and many licenses have expired without being renewed. Others are in the process of being renewed.

Question 8
Was there any engagements from the CIPC with industry associations such as SARIPA, the TMA-SA and SAICA about the licencing issue? How can this be improved?

These member bodies are part of the BRLC.

Important takeaways
There are a number of important points that BRPs need to pay attention to regarding the licencing issue:

• It is the sole responsibility of the BRP to ensure that they are aware of when their licence is reaching its expiration date. Do not expect any notification from the CIPC,
• The CIPC is moving to an online licencing system which it says will simplify the licencing process. BRPs will also have the option of selecting a notification alerting them of when their licence is about to expire;
• The licencing issue was raised in the BLRC. However, no concerns were expressed by the CIPC or member associations that belong to the BLRC.

Turnaround Talk asked he CIPC questions regarding the promotion of BRPs. We are awaiting their responses and will publish them as soon as we get them.