CIfA Newsflash 05/2021 | REMINDER: Joint SACAP-VA Fees Survey

SAIA encourages practices to participate in the Joint SACAP-VA Fees Survey 2021

On 17 March 2021 a link to the survey, jointly run by SACAP and the Voluntary Associations, was sent to all practices. Several practices have already completed the survey. A wider participation is however needed to make the data truly useful.

Each practice on SACAP’s listing of architectural practices should have received a personalised invitation, addressed to the practice with a unique link which gives access to the survey questionnaire on the research portal.

In a response to queries regarding the relevance, necessity and confidentiality of the Fees Survey, SAIA would like to highlight the following:

The survey is important to enable SACAP to comply with section 34 (2) of the Act, which requires the Council, in consultation with Voluntary Associations, to determine guideline professional fees and publish those fees in the Government Gazette. The Competition Commission asked SACAP to ensure that the guideline fees are based on real fee data. The fee data from the survey will be correlated with the other financial data received, adjusted to correct the current lack of viability of the profession and to ensure fair remuneration for a proper service. Through this initiative SACAP will be able to provide information to the public to benchmark architectural fees and to provide a framework for a sustainable profession.

SAIA members are assured that the survey is being conducted under the same strict guidelines which had been in force over the past three years when SAIA was conducting the SAIA Practice Benchmarking and Fees Surveys. All submitted data remain confidential.

The same Researcher, Vincent Shahim of Leading Edge Research, was appointed by SACAP to manage the joint survey, and we are confident that the data provided by practices are not and will not be made available to SACAP or any of the Voluntary Associations under any circumstances. It will only be available to the Researcher and the external Actuary appointed by SACAP for the purpose of evaluation.

The reports that will be made available by Leading Edge Research will only show data analysed in the aggregate and no practices will be identified individually.

Leading Edge Research abides by the South African Market Research Association (SAMRA) code of conduct. The data will be treated confidentially and will not be used for any other purpose.

To familiarise yourself with the questionnaire, please see attached below;

SACAP Questionnaire 2021_to practices

Any queries regarding the questionnaire may be addressed to Vincent at:

Tel: 084 612 1217 weekdays during normal office hours; or

E-mail: vincent@leadingedgeresearch.co.za

We thank all SAIA practices for participating in this important survey and thereby contributing to the wellbeing of the profession.