The Impact Of Covid-19 At PIC 2 Assignment Sample

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Introduction

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Abstract

• This paper aims to provide an assessment of the Public Investment Corporation SOC Limited (PIC) as a system. The Systems Thinking approach examines the challenges faced by the PIC’s Information and Communication Technology infrastructure. The PIC has been operating for about 110 years, in these years, The PIC has been experiencing challenges in the information infrastructure that incorporate changes in information systems, people, structure and processes.
• PIC clients play a fundamental role in sustaining the growth and strategic direction of the organisation. PIC’s core objective is to meet client expectations, however, currently, PIC is in breach of the client mandate by failing to adhere to the agreed reporting timelines. This paper is trying to understand the reasons
• Through its registered assets, the PIC controls more than 10% of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and has a significant impact on almost every sector of South African industry. A portion of the company's goal statement is to invest in Africa and beyond. In addition, the PIC aspires to provide social benefits through its investment in capital programs, which invest in projects that help the advancement of the underprivileged community.

Situation 

The PIC aims to produce social benefits via its investment in financial programs, which invest in initiatives that support the progress of the underserved population (Heald et al, 2020). An asset management corporation run by the South African government, administered by the Minister of Finance, is known as the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) (Heald et al, 2020). Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF), Unemployment Benefits Fund (UIF), and Indemnity fund investments are managed by the authority of the PIC. A leading asset management company, the PIC, manages assets totalling more than R2 trillion as well as strives to satisfy and exceed the expectations of customers. Because she works as a Manager in Records and Information Management for the PIC, the investigator seems to have a keen interest in this subject (Hockett, 2020). It is her responsibility to offer PIC with comprehensive system and information advisory services in support of the organisation's transition from a paper-based to an electronically managed records system. Listed below is the team's breakdown in terms of its members: Manager: Records and Information Management and three (3) Administrators.

PIC is required by Section 13 of the National Archives and Record Service of South Africa Act (No. 43 of 1996, as amended") (Makhura, 2001). to maintain its records in accordance with the Act's prerequisites as well as to implement procedures that ensure compliance with the Act's record-keeping and records-management practices. The legislation mandates that all government entities (including statutory organisations) are subject to the Act's requirements and must use appropriate record-keeping procedures (Hepburn et al, 2020). Personnel, equipment, as well as equipment all play a critical role in effective management, but so does information. Because of this, PIC's information resources must be treated as a significant asset.

An electronic wide-ranging records management is crucial to sustaining and increasing the asset's worth in light of Covid-19, among other things by allowing the PIC to quickly locate the required information. All relevant laws and regulations must be adhered to by PIC, which is a statutory body.

Discussion of the issues: During the pandemic situation of covid 19, the public investment corporation has faced a lot of problems. Different types of issues have been developed regarding the choices of investment shapes based on the choice of people. Depending on the location and nature of the public and private investment the quality of life has been affected very badly. Apart from that, due to the pandemic situation, the growth of public investment has been hampered and it was not possible to provide proper infrastructure. In that case, due to the lack of proper infrastructure, it was very difficult to promote private investment among the public. From that perspective, people were not able to invest with proper investment methods and a lack of trust was developed at that time. The opportunities for growth of the investment have been decreased which was a concern for the public investment corporation. In the COVID-19 situation, the local governments were unable to invest more efficiently because maintenance costs was high. Therefore, it is needed to seek attention and to figure out the problems.

The performance of the PIC was very affected during the covid 19 period as it was a global health pandemic situation. Since South Africa was under a hard lockdown during this time, the PIC tried to discharge the investment mandate that was very critical. It affected the stakeholders very badly. From that situation, it is mandatory to draw the attention. 

Concern (Refer to Appendix A3).

If PIC can engage two consultants, one to bring in new leads and another to keep track of the papers presented by the clients, this would save the members of the committee time when they need to access specific information from the customer. In addition, there is indeed a lack of support workers and interns within the organization (Bouri et al, 2021). As a result of insufficient support personnel, the approval committees are forced to spend an excessive amount of time to approve the contract. Time management is a major factor in the financial/investment business. Investing at the wrong moment may have a significant impact on returns.

Covid 19 has also created a concern for the PIC in the pandemic situation for developing the conditions of the businesses (Rafindadi et al, 2020). The revenues of the airlines have also decreased in this situation and it has been seen that it dropped by 60 percent. Therefore, it is a big concern to enhance the revenue of the airlines. From maintaining the health emergency it becomes a concern to provide proper lifelines for the businesses and households. It has been seen that it is also a concern for the PIC by improving the public investment by 2.7 per cent. Along with the the rate of GDP private investment are also developed that have been hampered during the pandemic situation of covid 19. There are many people who became unemployed during this situation, in that case, the interest rate has decreased which is a concern for the PIC (Sun et al, 2021). 

Actions needed to deal with the concern

For the Public Investment Corporation, a concern has been developed during the pandemic situation covid-19 (Ojo et al, 2020). As a possible recommendation, the government must have to focus on addressing the emergency needs. By providing proper concern to the requirements, the Government has to prepare a safe and successful economic condition so that it will be possible for the corporation to sort out the problems. The public investment corporation can provide a crucial contribution so that it will be possible to recover the situation. Assuming the safeguard policy in proper time it is necessary to make the growth and to provide priority for the people who are interested in investing. In the case of infrastructure like transport, telecommunication, etc. the PIC has to make an investment to reduce the effect of the pandemic situation. Action must be taken in case of improve the skills, education, and knowledge of people so that the improvement can be done in an effective way. The policies regarding investment and in case of tackling the economic condition it is mandatory to take proper action (Blake et al, 2018). Employee support has to be increased to reduce the effect of COVID-19 19 including the health of the staff associated with the corporation. Along with that, proper measures have to be taken by the government to protect the economy and the society that have an effect on the company and the investors. Also, the investors have to be connected with the development of the financial condition of the country by improving the condition of the pandemic situation. Also, the private sectors have to be developed their investment rates so that they can develop the situation. 

Explanation of CBOT (Refer to Appendix A6)

Even while record keeping would not be a new phenomenon, in recent months this has been a hot topic of discussion. PIC, like many other companies, has begun to see the value of efficiently handling customer data. Because of COVID-19, there seems to be increasing attention on how archives should indeed be kept (Carroll, 2021). That necessitated immediate changes in working arrangements and settings for organizations like PIC, as well as a push to modernize their technology. A lack of access to critical documents would mean that staff would not be able to perform their duties.

This necessitates the establishment of a comprehensive records management program that extends across the company (Gajdzik et al, 2020). As a result, increases in storage will be reduced, data breaches will be removed, lawsuit risks will be averted, and enhanced ownership of records will be handled if effective as well as effective record-keeping procedures are implemented.

The execution of the performance management system relies heavily on monitoring and evaluation:

• Document management rules as well as best practices must be taught to employees (Assessment, 2020).
• It was necessary to establish recordkeeping spokespeople across all functions in order to guarantee that document can control risk concerns are detected and handled on a constant schedule

Because of the document's life cycle, it was necessary for the Records Leadership Team and IT Section to work together in order to automate a few of the operations. New best standards necessitated an update to information administration processes and regulations.

Explanation of CLD (Refer to Appendix A6)

Acknowledging that perhaps a b recordkeeping system is required for PIC to operate efficiently. COVID-19, on the other hand, had carried the PIC's management documents with him. Despite the danger, there was a lot of room for improvement in the way records are maintained. Because of COVID-19 legislation, businesses were forced to shut their doors. Sound records management methods are required to be enhanced in both their quantity as well as quality. Poor record management was discovered in several departments, resulting in a rise in the number of records that could not be accessed (Škare et al, 2021). In addition to making it easier to find the information you need, good records management techniques may also help you conserve storage space, cut down on expenses, and reduce the danger of a lawsuit.

As soon as PIC came to this understanding, it made the business choice to purchase new laptops and provide its staff with high-quality mobile devices and tablets. Records Management as well as IT built the proper records management system, which allowed electronic access to papers and records. So that all PIC data is safely kept in the Cloud, PIC must nevertheless comply with current technical criteria (Liu et al, 2020). A more efficient system for keeping track of documents means easier access to information, better compliance with laws and regulations, and more rapid decision-making for everyone involved. As of now, the PIC's archives are being held forever in an off-site storage facility, and the PIC's future aim should be to digitize the data and make them accessible to everyone through a centralised repository. The problem is that not all workers have adapted to the new adjustment. I am still not satisfied with the information I have been able to get.

By implementing the new technologies it is easy to store the data of the stock exchange of Johannesburg (Arias, 2019). It is also easy to transfer the data by employing the information technology advancement in the public investment corporation which is also known as PIC. It is easy to access the data which are stored in the system. The data will be stored in a fixed place of stage. A fixed location is used to store the data. This is easy at the time of accessing the data. All the data of the stock exchange will be stored in the cloud of the newly formed storage system.

At the time of the pandemic situation due to the outbreak of COVID-19, it is very important to store the data. The demand for accessing the records of the public investment corporation is very high. In recent times m, most of the clients of the following infrastructure claimed that they are not able to access the data frequently. The process of data retrieval is not good.

Question

How has COVID-19 affected the system of managing the records throughout all the operations of PIC?

Answers

Events

What we call occurrences are what they see with their personal eyes and experience on a regular basis, throughout COVID-19, the PIC's inadequate record handling was uncovered. This is usually only the tip of the iceberg, and all these occurrences are dealt with whenever they arise. 

The pandemic situation which is caused by the outbreak of COVID-19 forces all areas of management to respond under enormous unpredictability as well as significant financial, societal as well as budgetary pressure. The advent of fresh waves of disease in South Africa from the middle of 2020 as well as the appearance of novel variations means that the government of South Africa face a limited capacity to sequence policy response. All levels of government of South Africa are realising that they are unable to rely on a linear path as well as the straight path of legislative action to deal with, recover as well as exit from the current crisis. Rather, the government of South Africa must take action on all aspects at the same time. The government of South Africa are reconsidering their multi-level structures of governing as a result of this demand for adaptation as well as flexibility.

Patterns

Over time, these might build up. Every day, for example, records are destroyed or lost due to human error (Loayza et al, 2020). Repeated patterns have emerged in which the files, as well as documents, are also sometimes recovered and other times they are not. Employee morale suffers as a result of constant searching for documents and data that they are unable to locate. Furthermore, achieving the expectations of the stakeholders as well as contributing to the Government's important development goals is a primary goal of the purpose as well as the vision of PIC (Shahbaz et al, 2020).

Systematic structure

It is possible that PIC will come up with imaginative remedies, based on the patterns as well as happenings that make daily lives possible. In order to react to the patterns as well as occurrences that we see in our world, we need certain inventive frameworks (Kinnunen et al, 2021). Having a look at how far back the records go is a good idea. Africa, unlike Europe, Latin America as well as the United States is at a far earlier stage of the pandemic curve than the rest of the developing world. It is still feasible to respond as well as fight a large spread of the disease. Though urgent action is needed on numerous fronts, it is nevertheless imperative. 

With assets totalling more than R1.857 trillion as well as increasing, the Public Investment Corporation Limited which is also known as SOC is one of the biggest investment administrators in South Africa in recent times (Michaelowa et al, 2018). The government of South Africa owns 100 per cent of the PIC which is also known as a public investment corporation, a registered provider of financial services, with the Finance minister as the representative of the shareholder. Clients specify the goals of investment as well and the board of financial services approves their investments on behalf of public sector organisations which is also known as FSB. The expectations of the clients as well as the goals of the investment of the shareholder are met or exceeded via rigorous research, diligent risk analysis as well as b processes of compliance. According to the act of Corporation of Public Investment, 2004, the PIC was incorporated on April 1, 2005. It is now possible for PIC to arrange its financial operations as well as processes in a way similar to those of private investment managers because of its incorporation. It is not enough for them to only adhere to regulations set by the Financial Services Board which is also known as FSB (Nyeadi et al, 2018). They also compare their results to those of other leaders of the local market of South Africa by benchmarking against the indexes that are driven by the market. All of the investments made in the funds are predominantly in the following asset classes: equities which are listed as well as which are also known as stock, money markets, capital markets, the trust of the fund as well and the property. As a way to help South Africa achieve its development objectives, the trust of the funds supports investments of money which have a positive influence on society.

Reference list

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Appendix A

A1.Rich Picture

A2.2 Analysis of Stakeholders

The perspective of an employee

They understand the importance of having a reliable records management program in place so that they may retrieve their digitized information and evidence from home.

The perspective of the senior managers

The outcomes of COVID-19 have pushed the topic of records management to the forefront of the discussion. Since staff were working from their homes, a new kind of technology and online devices were required to enter important information, top management explained.

The perspective of the clients of the PIC

Because of whatever cause, PIC should also have access to the most recent technology to guarantee that they can readily access their data. Third parties may ask for information under the Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000 (Act No. 2 of 2000) (“PAIA”), as well as PIC should really be able to locate these documents with ease.

A3. CBOT related to the problem situation

(Source: Self-made)

A4. Brainstorm