Fraud & Corruption
Criminal Referrals & Prosecutions
Matters referred for criminal prosecution and their journey through the justice system, from docket to verdict.
Closing the loop from finding to prosecution
An audit finding only becomes consequence management when serious matters are actually referred to law enforcement and tracked to an outcome. Section 34 of PRECCA obliges accounting officers to report suspected corruption above the prescribed threshold to the police, and the AGSA increasingly tests whether such referrals were made and pursued. AuditPro Core maintains the chain from internal finding to docket so that referrals do not quietly lapse on a desk.
The Numbers
AuditPro Core renders this view from your tenant's live, tamper-evident records. The figures below are illustrative sample data.
Criminal referrals
384
Accepted for prosecution
162
42%
Convictions
57
Declined / withdrawn
98
Referrals by stage
Stage detail
| Stage | Matters | Share of referred |
|---|---|---|
| On court roll | 162 | 42% |
| Under assessment | 124 | 32% |
| Declined / withdrawn | 98 | 26% |
| Convicted | 57 | 15% |
Figures shown are illustrative sample data for demonstration. AuditPro Core renders these views from your own tenant's live, tamper-evident records.
Mandatory reporting under PRECCA
Section 34 of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act compels persons in authority to report corruption, fraud, theft and extortion above R100 000 to a police official. Failure to report is itself an offence, which is why a defensible referral register matters.
Referral is not the same as resolution
Handing a docket to the SAPS or NPA starts a separate process governed by prosecutorial discretion and court timetables. Tracking the stage each matter has reached prevents an entity from claiming a case is dealt with when no charge has yet been laid.
Evidentiary readiness
Criminal matters demand a higher standard of proof than a disciplinary finding. Preserving source records, approvals and reconciliations in their original form is what allows a referral to survive scrutiny by an investigating officer and a prosecutor.
Oversight visibility
Public accounts committees and the Special Investigating Unit expect to see the disposition of referred matters. A stalled or withdrawn prosecution is a governance signal in its own right, not merely a legal footnote.
How AuditPro Core Bridges the Gap
- Referral register: every matter referred is logged with its receiving authority, case number and reporting basis, giving a single source of truth for PRECCA section 34 compliance.
- Status tracking: each docket moves through defined stages from registration to verdict, with ageing so cases dormant beyond expected timeframes surface automatically.
- Traceability to source: referred matters stay linked to the originating finding, transactions and evidence, so an investigating officer receives a complete, audit-ready bundle.
- Exception alerts: matters that meet the mandatory-reporting threshold but have no referral recorded are flagged for the accounting officer's attention.
Key Takeaways
- A referral is a milestone, not an endpoint; track each matter through to a court outcome.
- PRECCA section 34 makes non-reporting of qualifying offences a crime in its own right.
- Preserve original evidence early, because criminal proof standards are unforgiving.
- Withdrawn or stalled prosecutions are themselves findings worth reporting to oversight.
See This on Your Own Data
AuditPro Core renders this dashboard from your tenant's live, tamper-evident records — every figure traceable to source.