The construction desk/The registers

The registers a contractor lives on.

Eight registers decide whether a firm may lawfully do a piece of work in South Africa, and most clients check one of them and stop. Each page says what the register is for, who must be on it, how to look a firm up for free, and what a listing does not prove. Read the last part twice: a registration is a licence, not a reference.

01 · for contractorscidb Register of ContractorsThe statutory register every contractor on public work must be on, graded 1 to 9 by the size of contract it may bid, in classes of works.Check at registers.cidb.org.za · Open →02 · for suppliersCentral Supplier DatabaseNational Treasury's single supplier database for the whole public sector: one registration, checked automatically against CIPC, SARS and B-BBEE.Check at secure.csd.gov.za · Open →03 · for clientsNHBRCThe home builders' regulator: every builder of a new home must be registered, and every new home enrolled before it is built.Check at nhbrc.org.za · Open →04 · for clientsPIRBThe Plumbing Industry Registration Board: the register of qualified plumbers, and the body whose certificate of compliance a plumbing installation carries.Check at pirb.co.za · Open →05 · for clientsDepartment of Employment and Labour: registered personsThe register of people who may do electrical installation work and issue the certificate of compliance: single-phase testers, installation electricians and master installation electricians.Check at The Department of Employment and Labour · Open →06 · for clientsSAQCC GasThe South African Qualification and Certification Committee for Gas: the register of gas practitioners, and the only people who may issue a gas certificate of conformity.Check at saqccgas.co.za · Open →07 · for clientsCompensation Fund: letter of good standingThe Compensation Fund's confirmation that an employer is registered and its assessments are paid, so an injury on site is the Fund's claim and not the client's.Check at cfonline.labour.gov.za · Open →08 · for clientsNational Treasury: restricted suppliers and tender defaultersThe two lists a firm ends up on for abusing public procurement, and the reason to check the directors as well as the company.Check at ocpo.treasury.gov.za · Open →

Before any contractor starts

the reading

The lookup links on each page go to the register itself. Ask for a number, not a certificate; a number you look up is evidence. The five a client should run before any contractor starts, in order, with what each catches: how to vet a contractor in South Africa. When each document expires is on the compliance clock.

The panel

Every register on this page is checked before a panel contractor quotes, by number and at source, and re-checked as it expires. A client who appoints through the panel has had the checking done.

Put a job out →Join the panelSupply the panel