Developing a planning tool for South African prosecution resources: challenges and approach

In South Africa, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has the responsibility of planning and managing all prosecution functions. The development of a planning tool that the NPA could use to plan their future resource requirements over the short to medium term required extensive modelling, and it...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inOrion (Johannesburg, South Africa) Vol. 28; no. 2; pp. 85 - 98
Main Authors Koen, R, Holloway, JP, Elphinstone, CD, Stylianides, T
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Johannesburg Operations Research Society of South Africa 01.12.2012
Operations Research Society of South Africa (ORSSA)
Subjects
Government agencies
Prosecutions
Resource allocation
Simulation
Studies
South Africa
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Summary:In South Africa, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has the responsibility of planning and managing all prosecution functions. The development of a planning tool that the NPA could use to plan their future resource requirements over the short to medium term required extensive modelling, and its final form included features which, to the best knowledge of the development team, make it unique both locally and internationally. Model design was largely influenced by the challenges emanating from the special requirements and context of the problem. The various components of the planning tool, including inputs and outputs of the simulation models and the linkages between the forecasts and the simulation models, were implemented in a set of spreadsheets. By using spreadsheets as a common user interface, the planning tool could be used by prosecutors and managers who may not have extensive mathematical or modelling experience.
ISSN:2224-0004
0259-191X
2224-0004
DOI:10.5784/28-2-105