a) The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism did not monitor progress of court cases relating to abalone that had been confiscated. The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism therefore did not know which court cases had been finalised and whether the samples kept for court purposes could be released for processing. b) The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism records of samples of confiscated abalone kept for court purposes (as at 31 July 2007) were incomplete and details of police investigations were not maintained for some of the samples of confiscated abalone which failure could complicate the monitoring and follow up of court cases.