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Consumer Goods Council Crime Prevention Programme

Crime in the retail industry affects the whole country and the losses sustained by the companies (manufacturers, distributors, stores etc,) seriously affect their profitability.

The Crime Prevention Programme (CPP) is a concerted effort by the industry to reduce crime. This will be achieved by sharing non-competitive information and jointly developing best practices to eradicate the incidents of crime in the supply chain.

Mission

The CGC CPP's mission is to co-ordinate the individual anti-crime efforts of the consumer goods industry, sharing non-competitive information, developing industry solutions to reduce crime for the benefit, not just of our industry, but South Africa as a whole.

Members

Seven major stores groups (Clicks, Massmart, Metcash, Pick 'n Pay, Shoprite Checkers, Spar and Woolworths) together with the major manufacturers, distributors and service providers have signed up to support the CPP driven initiative aimed at reducing crime in our industry.

Funding

Running a full-time anti-crime programme necessitates financial support from the industry as the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa (CGCSA) is a Section 21 (non-profit) organisation. Annual membership fees, calculated according to a scale based on the industry type, are paid by members.

Benefits of membership

Members of CPP have the following benefits:

Central incident register

A central database is being populated with details of all reported criminal incidents that occur in the industry. Analysis of this information will then identify gaps in process controls that facilitate the execution of crime, or certain geographic points where crimes occur most often. Armed with these facts, the industry is able to develop effective counter-measures to combat and reduce crime.

Employers reference site

Lack of information, or intended omission thereof, can result in employment decisions that are based on half-truths. After extensive research which included Senior Council's opinion, CPP has developed a central register of employment records, in order for participating employers to access accurate work histories (within the retail industry only) of candidates. This system provides a verification of the work history provided by candidate employees. There is no discriminatory information kept on these employees, no matter what the reason for departure.

Illegal trade practices

This segment focuses on VAT and other forms of tax evasion. In conjunction with the South African Revenue Services, CPP is developing a set of Best Practices for Manufacturers and Exporters to ensure that they are complying with the various Acts and regulations that pertain to the process and tax rules for exporting goods. We also have an action against stores that are found to be selling stolen or counterfeit goods.

ID cards

The CPP is heading up the ID cards initiative which has been initiated from the seven major store groups. The main purpose of the ID card is to exercise better control over the access into stores especially via the back door. All non-store staff employees such as merchandisers, security, promotion companies and drivers need these cards to enter the back of the stores.

SMS alert

CPP has developed a unique system that has the capacity of sending nationwide SMS messages to members. This user friendly system is called Amavuso, which means 'warning'. The main aim of this service is to alert all recipients of high level crimes occurring in their vicinity with the intent to protect recipients and create a safer place for all, and ultimately preventing these crimes from happening.

Best practices

Collaboration from various companies in conjunction with the results of analysed data from CPP contributes to the development of best practices and industry standards for the industry. Crime scene management, response to armed robberies, personal safety tips and hijacking awareness guidelines, includes some of the focus areas. CPP has also published a White Paper on CCTV in 2006 and is currently busy with a Biometric Access Project, from which a White Paper will also be published. These publications are available to members at no charge. The success of these initiatives rests in the sharing of non-competitive information by experts.

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