The department's director-general, Tshediso Matona, said yesterday that he was keeping a close watch on Cipro , which has been plagued by computer failures and allegations of fraud.
"My priority is a speedy resolution of all the controversies, and action and restore public confidence in Cipro," Matona said.
"Cipro is about service delivery . it plays such an important function in the economy."
The SA Institute of Chartered Accountants said at the weekend that the business sector had been "strangled" by IT problems and inefficiency at Cipro since October and that the problems hadsteadily worsened.
A senior executive of the institute, Ewald Muller, said the paralysis at the state agency "threatens the economy on several fronts, most notably in the inability of companies and closed corporations to continue operating within corporate legislation".
Cipro CEO Keith Sendwe was admitted to hospital in the middle of January with an undisclosed but "serious" illness. He is on indefinite sick leave.
Other executives have been suspended, pending a report by the auditor-general into a R153-million IT tender that the agency awarded last year.
Economist Mike Schussler said it was impossible to quantify the effect of the crisis at Cipro on the economy but "the knock-on effect is quite huge. If you can't register, you can't do business."
Accountants have said important deals collapsed and bank overdrafts were cancelled because companies could not process regulatory requirements through Cipro.
Cipro admitted last week that its website's "major downtimes" had caused frustration.
The agency said it had "dedicated" additional resources to assist walk-in clients, and staff were working overtime and at weekends to clear the backlogs. - I-Net Bridge