The second issue of concern raised by the Committee was related to the fact that the function of job grading was outsourced to a private company, namely PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), and indicated that the Committee finds this extremely problematic. The job grading was done on a different grading system than that used by the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) for government employees. PWC used the Patterson Grading System to determine job grading opposed to the Equate Grading System, which is used by the DPSA. The use of private companies to grade jobs for public entities is highly irregular as the mechanism for oversight and accountability is largely lost through the process chosen by PSIRA. The Council stated that the currently serving members of the Council was not yet appointed when the decision to use PWC for job grading was taken and further stated that at the time the decision was taken s Ministerial Task- team was appointed to PSIRA and noted that the Authority was completely dysfunctional and could not perform the task of job grading in-house. The Committee questioned why the Authority did not approach the Department of Public Service and Administration for assistance in the process of job grading and why the Authority did not benchmark their salaries against similar public entities. The Authority stated that they were not aware that they could approach DPSA. The Council stated that PSIRA is under the impression that the Authority is not like other public entities, in that they generate most of their own funds and that it is crucial for this mindset to change and accept the assistance available from Government. The Authority stated that they have paid PwC at total of R603 thousand to date for services provided in terms of job grading (R603 146.30).