Business avoids crime spotlight

Johannesburg - The head of SA's commercial crime unit said this type of criminality remained under-reported, despite a 16% increase in cases opened during the South African Police Service's previous financial year.

"Many companies do not like involving the law in instances of corruption and fraud. They deal with cases internally and dismiss the guilty. This keeps them out of the public spotlight," said Advocate Chris Jordaan, commenting on crime statistics released on Tuesday. "

"A further cause for concern is that the increase in this type of crime is accompanied by an increase in the amounts involved."

Jordaan ascribed the 16% increased to the weak economy, which is forcing more and more people to seek other sources of income. He added the amounts involved are also rising. "Ten years ago when the unit was established, fraud cases of R1m were considered big," Jordaan said. These days a run-of-the-mill fraud case can easily involve more than R10m."

In 2008/09 the commercial crimes unit managed to get convictions in 1 408 cases. This was a 14.3% improvement on the previous financial year, but concern persists about the quality of the unit's service to the community.

According to the latest annual report from the National Prosecuting Authority, the average time it takes to finalise a case increased to 310 days in the past financial year. The target is 233.

Among the reasons are the fact that magistrates continually rotate, and the "lack of capacity among police investigators".

Sake24 understands that the application of the laws to combat commercial crime leaves much to be desired.

The Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act, No 12 of 2004, for instance, determines that a register must be kept of the name of any person or concern found guilty of a crime where contracts or tenders are involved.

The public should have access to this register via the National Treasury's website. However, since 2004 when the act came into force, not a single name has been entered into the register.

Thoraya Pandy, chief spokesperson for the Treasury, said this is not the fault of Treasury. "If someone is found guilty of such a crime, the court must issue an order for the details to be entered in the register. To date no court has yet issued such an order."

Pandy said Treasury has had several meetings with the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development and this department has emphasised that the legislation and its terms should be brought to the attention of national judges, magistrates and prosecutors.

The most recent meeting was on June 19 this year.

"The director-general of the Department again gave his assurance that all prosecutors would be made aware of the act and its provisions."

- Sake24.com