THE SPECIALISED COMMERCIAL CRIME UNIT

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THE SPECIALISED COMMERCIAL CRIME UNIT

• AN OVERVIEW
• MAY 2008
• ADV CHRIS JORDAAN, SC

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INDEX

• Background
• Who are we?
• Where do we fit into the structures?
• What cases do we do?

3
INDEX (CONT)

• How do we do our work?
• Our achievements 2002/3 to date
• Recent achievements
• Trends/ challenges
• Annexures
• A- Monitoring tools
• B- Improvement Plans

4
BACKGROUND

• Established on 1 August 1999 as a pilot project
  to combat the deteriorating situation pertaining
  to commercial crime.
• Starting operations in Pretoria, it soon proved
  to be so effective that it was decided to roll
  the Unit out countrywide.

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BACKGROUND (CONT)

• Some of the objectives of the initiative were
• Specialisation
• Co-location of prosecutors and investigators
• Dedicated courts
• Substantially increase number of cases processed
• Reduce cycle times

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WHO ARE WE?

• Our mandate
• We are specialist prosecutors within the National
  Prosecuting Authority
• We are dedicated to the prosecution of complex
  commercial crime cases

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WHO ARE WE? (CONT)

• Establishment 169 posts 7 contract posts
• Regional Offices at Pretoria, Johannesburg, Cape
  Town, Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein, Durban and
  attached office of PE in East London
• Pretoria also serves Polokwane and Mpumalanga
• Majority of prosecutors are Senior State
  Advocates

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WHO ARE WE? (CONT)

• We also provide services to some regions, either
  by a prosecutor on site or prosecutor going on
  circuit
• Our contract prosecutors deal with RAF matters
  and counterfeit matters

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WHO ARE WE? (CONT)

• We mostly prosecute in the Regional Courts
• Prosecutions in the High Court and District Court
  not excluded

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Where do we fit into the structures? NPA
Structure
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Where do we fit into the structures? Partners
NDPP
NSSD DEPUTY NDPP
Steering Committee
Regional Court President
Commercial Branch Provincial Head
SPECIAL DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTION
MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE
SCCU
Prosecutors
Courts
Process Scheduling Management, Admin Finance
COMMERCIAL BRANCH
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Where do we fit into the structures? Partners
MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE
PROSECUTION
INVESTIGATION
OPERATIONS
OPERATIONS
PROFESSIONAL
PROFESSIONAL
PERSONNEL
PERSONNEL
ADMINISTRATION
ADMINISTRATION
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WHAT CASES DO WE DO?(SAPS MANDATE)

• We prosecute complex commercial crime cases
  investigated by the Commercial Branch of the
  South African Police Services in dedicated
  courts
• We obtain our cases thus mostly through SAPS
  Commercial Branchs mandate

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WHAT CASES DO WE DO?(SAPS MANDATE)

• However the SCCU will attend to any complex
  commercial crime matter brought to its attention
  in the area where it is operational
• General rule only serious commercial crime
  (Regional Court matters)
• Directive of DPP as to forum of cases (DC or RC)
  serves as a guideline

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The Mandate of SAPS Commercial Branch

• The mandate of SAPS Commercial Branch
• Statutory offences relating to legislation under
  diverse areas, from Banking and Currency to
  E-Crime
• Common-law offences
• All common-law offences pertaining to the
  statutes dealt with by the branch , including
  fraud and theft

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The Mandate of SAPS Commercial Branch

• Other fraud-related crimes
• counterfeit banknotes, and the counterfeiting of
  legal tender
• Theft
• Trust monies

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The Mandate of SAPS Commercial Branch

• Fraud
• Relating to company or close corporation, double
  discounting of instalment sale agreements,
  factoring, stock exchange, Computer related,
  Internet related, stolen cards, State
  Institutions, fiduciary capacity

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The Mandate of SAPS Commercial Branch

• White-plastic, clone cheques, counterfeiting and
  uttering of credit, debit and petrol cards.
• Kite-flying, which is the unlawful generating of
  funds in bank accounts by means of depositing
  stolen or worthless bills of exchange

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WHAT CASES DO WE DO?OTHER

• In discretion of Head of the Unit/delegates to
  accept matters outside of SAPS Commercial Branch
  mandate, e.g. upon request of another unit
• NDPP exercises discretion and may allocate
  certain matters, e.g. prosecution of NPA-members
  in other units

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HOW DO WE DO OUR WORK?

• Joint planning problem solving
• Specified focus areas
• Location
• Team work
• Case planning
• Prosecutor guided investigation
• Monitoring evaluation

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HOW DO WE DO THIS?JOINT PLANNING PROBLEM
SOLVING

• We work jointly with the police and other
  stakeholders, e. g. Banking Industry, Business
  Against Crime, Road Accident Fund, etc
• We have procedural guidelines, accepted by all
• We have scheduled strategic operational
  meetings, attended by all

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HOW DO WE DO OUR WORK? OUR FOCUS AREAS
SPECIALISATION (Investigation Prosecution of
CC)
COMMITMENT (Dedicated Focus)
FOCUS AREAS
EXPERIENCED PEOPLE (Capacity Building)
EFFECTIVE PROCESSES (Optimal operational
efficiency effectiveness)
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HOW DO WE DO THIS?LOCATION

• We mostly share premises with the SAPS
  Commercial Branch
• We prosecute our cases in dedicated Regional
  Courts, usually located at/near our premises

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HOW DO WE DO THIS?TEAM WORK

• A prosecutor and investigator are allocated right
  at beginning of a case
• They work together as a team throughout the case
• Co- location contributes to efficacy of
  relationship

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HOW DO WE DO THIS?TEAM WORK

• The Prosecutor guides the investigation
• The Prosecutor and Investigator however operate
  independently and are functionaries in their own
  right
• Involvement of prosecutors in the investigation
  not allowed
• The Prosecutor does not lead the investigation

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HOW DO WE DO OUR WORK?TEAMWORK

• Dr J A van S d Oliveira SC

• A prosecutor must be TASK TEAM ORIENTATED.
  There must be a joint prosecutor police
  collaboration from the outset. This is the
  recipe for success.

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HOW DO WE DO OUR WORK?TEAM WORK

• Case plan
• The prosecutor and investigator jointly draft a
  case plan, setting out what needs to be done, by
  whom and when
• They monitor progress by regular follow up
  meetings
• The guidelines aligns target dates to tasks

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CASE PLANNING
PLANNING MEETING Plan activity Agree resp.
target dates
TEAM FOCUS
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CASE PLANNINGSCOPE OF THE PROCESS
AFU FORMAL WORKING RELATION- SHIP
EXTERNAL SOURCES Eg. NDPP other Provinces,, etc.
PROSECUTOR
INVESTIGATOR
TEAM Investigates case and Prepares for Trial
THE TRIAL
The Post Trial REVIEW
Unit Commander allocates case to
Investigator INITIAL investigation to enable
Unit Cmdr to assess whether there is a case
SCCU Cases Investigator Prosecutor External
Spec Team Appt. PLAN Investigation Delegate
Tasks
Cases Reviewed by Unit Mgt.
NEW CASES
CASES CLOSED
NON-SCCU CASES
CASES NOLLE PROSECUI
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
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HOW DO WE DO OUR WORK?MONITOR EVALUATE

• The process is monitored by supervisors on an
  electronic case register
• Regular operational and strategic meetings with
  all stakeholders are held

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OUR ACHIEVEMENTS 2002/3 TO 2006/7

• Number of courts increased by 241.7
• Number of convictions increased by 435.3
• Conviction rate averaging 95

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OUR ACHIEVEMENTS 2002/3 TO 2006/7

• Cases enrolled for trial increased by 251.9
• Cases finalised increased by 158, 2

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OUR ACHIEVEMENTS 2002/3 TO 2006/7

• Major cases resulting in convictions and long
  prison sentences
• E.g. In 2006/7 direct imprisonment in 134 cases
• Good court hours in 2006/7 averaging 4h34
• Model environment for development of similar
  prosecutor guided initiatives

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RECENT ACHIEVEMENTS

• The SCCU devised compliance monitoring tools for
  13 selected policies and monitored compliance
  over a year to obtain baselines
• The SCCU selected 7 priority governance areas,
  implemented improvement plans and increased the
  combined governance index score by 28,75

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RECENT ACHIEVEMENTS

• The SCCU actively managed risk by allocating a
  risk manager and implementing risk mitigation
  plans
• The SCCU concentrated on properly managing the
  relationships with stakeholders, employees, other
  units
• A stakeholder survey was held
• An employee satisfaction survey was held

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RECENT ACHIEVEMENTS

• Baselines were obtained and plans to increase
  satisfaction levels drafted
• The SCCU made a concerted effort to engage with
  the community all offices had several projects
• Joint targets were set with the AFU and exceeded

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2007/2008 PTA JHB PE DBN BLOEM CAPE T APR 08 06/07 05/06 04/05
COURT HOURS 0404 0417 0442 0440 0352 0354 0414 0434 4.94 4.69
ENROLLED 303 444 256 452 136 260 1851 1184 1431 935
OUTSTANDING 235 312 129 323 107 109 1215 1163 1056 843
CONVICTIONS 329 198 188 310 88 119 1232 1515 857 653
SENTENCES 319 210 174 305 84 119 1211 1485 916 635
ACQUITTALS 18 24 10 2 4 19 77 53 47 36
CONVICTION RATE 94.81 89.19 94.95 99.36 95.65 86.23 94.12 96.62 94.63 94.78
WITHDRAWALS 226 205 15 138 8 63 655 343 268 213
gt 6MONTHS 55 40 65 61 51 52 53.95 55.80 NA NA
105 A 29 31 4 14 8 67 153 537 171 90
CASE LOAD PP 49 61 45.1 80 43 92 74.02 73.22 59.5 63.41
Turnaround court (days) 263 454.31 285 206 222 129 238.39 233.83 302.08 NA
Turnaround all (days) 349 433.73 287 265 233 80 274.62 253.31 244.72 177
Cases received 588 987 480 805 293 1206 4359 3423 2823.00 3077
Cases finalised 747 768 355 631 158 372 3031 3574 2271.00 1772
Nolle prosequi 184 329 156 186 62 171 1088 1693 1035.00  
In Custody gt6M 28 12 6 3 5 7 61 92    
In Custody gt2Y 4 12 1 0 0 0 17 10    
PP for inv 32 19 10 47 5 1 114 0    
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TRENDS

• Decrease in Court hours
• Permanent Magistrates not given by DoJ as
  promised
• Rotating of magistrates, which influences
  continuity of cases and requires fragmentation of
  staff in different courts
• -The type of cases enrolled are more complex
• -A tendency for less pleas and more trials have
  developed.

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TRENDS

• Consistently high conviction rate
• High withdrawal rate
• This can be attributed to a clean out session
  relating to the RAF project held during the year
• Reasons for withdrawals are supplied on an
  ongoing basis and monitored

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TRENDS
Decrease in Section 105A pleas - Accused are electing to take their chances in court
Steady increase in Case loads of prosecutors - Continually monitored and addressed
Steady Turnaround times of matters on the role
Turnaround times of all cases (on role and not on role) are slightly higher than before, but not a matter of concern
Increase in number of cases received - Roll out of the Bloemfontein and Cape Town offices - Stakeholder programs which have created trust in the abilities of the Unit
Less cases were finalised in total. There were many vacancies in this period.
Less cases were finalised by way of nolle prosequi, and more enrolled
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CHALLENGES

• To increase access to our services
• To create a pool of prosecutors who are
  specialists in the prosecution of commercial
  crime
• To investigate how we can deliver a service from
  district court level up

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THE SPECIALISED COMMERCIAL CRIME UNIT

• THE END

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ANNEXURE AMONITORING TOOLS

• Asset Management
• Conditions of Service
• Employee Wellness
• Performance Management
• Petty Cash
• Prevention and Combatting of Corrupt Activities
• Sexual Harassment
• Smoking
• Supply Chain Management
• Telephone and Cellular
• Termination of Service
• Theft and Losses
• Vehicle Management

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ANNEXURE BIMPROVEMENT PLANS

• Priority Governance Areas
• Risk Management
• Performance Management
• Stakeholder Management
• Policy Management
• Financial Management
• Strategic Management
• Information Management