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Postal Services Act, 1998 (Act No. 124 of 1998)

Regulations

Unreserved Postal Services Regulations, 2020

Reasons Document on Unreserved Postal Services Regulations, March 2020

2. Submissions received on the Draft Regulations and the Authority's response

2.8. Regulation 12 : Third party contracting

 

2.8.1. Submissions received:
2.8.1.1. SAEPA submits that it is not clear in these circumstances whether the Authority will require notification of each agreement between the registrant and each person that conveys the items at some level of the supply chain or not. SAEPA accordingly submits that the Authority must have further stakeholder consultations on this clause.
2.8.1.2. SAEPA further submits that the Authority must in respect of this proposed regulation 12, provide its rationale as this will enable stakeholders to better understand the danger that this proposed regulation seeks to address, which is not immediately apparent to SAEPA.
2.8.1.3. Fastway submits that the current wording of regulation 12 of the Draft Regulations includes temporary contractors who are sometimes 'one-man shows' or individuals and places an unnecessary administrative burden on the operator to submit information.
2.8.1.4. Fastway submits it would be more efficient to require operators to provide business details to ICASA of its third parties only if they are providing services to the operator on a regular basis, for example, for more than 5 (five) business days in any calendar month.
2.8.1.5. Fastway is further of the view that the details of individuals providing services to registered operators on an adhoc basis should be exempted from this reporting.
2.8.1.6. Fastway also states that the details of third-party contractors that are already registered with ICASA should be exempted from this reporting. Fastway submits that alternatively, it would be more efficient to require registered operators to have a record-keeping mechanism for the safe-keeping of the details of all third parties to be retained for a period of a year. According to Fastway, this information should be available for inspection by ICASA if so required.

 

2.8.2. The Authority’s decision
2.8.1.1. The Authority has decided to retain Regulation 12 to ensure that every operator involved in the provision of unreserved postal services is known to the Authority for sector intelligence and analysis. The Authority will further use the Third-Party list to follow up on unregistered operators that fulfill the criteria of being unreserved operators as per section 22 of Act.
2.8.1.2. The Third-Party list is also essential for the Authority to further enhance quality of service and compliance with requirements of the Act and other related legislation by ensuring non-compliance by an agent and/or franchisee, will be attributed to the registered operator.