Pretoria — The annual report of the Companies and Intellectual Property Registration office (CIPRO) has reflected the organisations successes in its management processes and with new projects.

"Excellent achievements and progress were made during the past financial year with

a lot of challenges," said CIPRO's chief executive officer Keith Sendwe on Tuesday.

This came after the 2006/2007 annual report was tabled during a Parliamentary sitting earlier this month.

Mr Sendwe said a key factor underlining CIPRO's new initiatives were the vigorous programs put in place by the Finance Division through the introduction of sound financial management systems.

"This resulted in receiving an un-qualified audit report from the Auditor-General for the 2006/2007 financial year," the CEO said.

"CIPRO will continue to improve on these processes and address challenges with commitment."

He explained that the Standing Committee on public Accounts (SCOPA) was also informed on a regular basis regarding the various changes being implemented.

SCOPA in turn indicated it was satisfied with the "change processes" being rolled out, said Mr Sendwe.

"As we are moving into the 2007/2008 finical year and beyond CIPRO has embarked on getting ISO 9001 accreditation as well as decentralising our services in all nine provinces.

"The implementation of a Quality Management System based on ISO 9001 is well on track and to be implemented early January 2008."

This, said the CIPRO chief, would ensure the implementation of high measurable standards in all processes and procedures and in return will enable CIPRO to benchmark against leading registration offices in the world.

"Our decentralisation program entails getting partners on board and to extend our footprint in all communities," he said.

"We have signed Service level Agreements with SEDA (Small Enterprise Development Agency) and SAPO (South African Post Office) who will be able to give specific client service on CIPRO products, services and registration of Close Corporations (cc) and Co-operatives."

This will be operational from January 2008.

The new Co-operatives Act, 2005 (Act 14 of 2005), came into operation on 2 May 2007.

The Minister of Trade and Industry also approved the Co-operatives Administrative Regulations under the said Act, which came into operation on 2nd of May 2007.

The new Co-operatives act will motivate and encourage people in many sectors to unite in a formal structure to become part of the mainstream economy.