‘consultancy’ means the provision of any service that assists a measured entity
to implement a BEE Strategy or any element of a BEE Strategy. This includes
implementation in ownership, management control, employment equity, skills
development, preferential procurement, enterprise development and corporate
social investment. With reference to avoidance of conflicts of interest, the service
would be considered to be consultancy if the company had provided specific
solutions and assisted the measured entity to implement the proposed solutions.
Examples of consultancy include, but are not limited to, the following:
(a) coaching or facilitating the BEE process on behalf of the measured entity
towards the development and implementation of activities leading to BEE
compliance
(b) preparing or producing manuals, handbooks or procedures
(c) participating in the decision-making process regarding the management
system
(d) giving specific advice on the development and implementation of the
management system for eventual verification.
Verification Agencies may carry out the following duties without them being
considered as consultancies or necessarily creating a conflict of interests:
(a) verification, including information meetings, planning meetings, examination
of documents and follow-up of non-conformities
(b) arranging training and participating as a trainer – this is not considered to be
consultancy work provided that, where training relates to the BEE process, it
shall be confined to providing generic information and advice that is freely
available in the public domain, i.e. the trainer should not provide specific
solutions; giving guidelines to the measured entity as to what they need to
comply with is not considered consultancy
(c) making available or publishing on request information on the basis of the
Verification Agency’s interpretation of the requirements of the Verification
Standard
(d) activities prior to verification aimed solely at determining readiness for
verification; however, such activities should not result in the provision of
recommendations or advice that would contravene the above examples of
consultancy and the Verification Agency should be able to confirm that such
activities do not contravene these provisions and that they are not used to
justify a reduction in the eventual duration of the verification process
(e) adding value during verification visits, e.g. by identifying opportunities for
improvement, as they become evident during the verification, without
recommending specific solutions.
Source: SANAS R47
