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Judicial Procedures Development Project (JPD)
Ministry of State for Administrative Development

A. Problem Analysis

 1. What was the problem before the implementation of the initiative?
Describe in no more than 500, words the situation before the initiative began. What major problems and issues needed to be addressed? What social groups, e.g., the poor, illiterate, disabled, elderly, immigrants, women, youth, ethnic minorities, were affected and in what ways? In spite of the great efforts exerted by the Egyptian Government for developing public services, there still exist many difficulties facing the judicial procedures and services. These difficulties result in numerous problems faced by the public dealing with the Egyptian judicial system (citizens, businesses and foreign investors). The main judicial system problems and obstacles that were faced prior to the initiative can be summed up as follows: - Judicial procedures are lengthy (some cases can take years to reach a verdict). - Ambiguity of procedures (as perceived by the public). - Reliance on ineffective and inefficient procedures. - Lack of monitoring and control of internal processes. - Low level of services that are offered to beneficiary community. - Need to process an ever growing large number of cases, large size of backlog (dating back up to 20 years at times). - Inability to follow up the execution of rulings. - Very bad work environment. - Unequal allocation of human and physical resources. - Lack of attention to human resources (HR). These were all complications that rather had a direct impact influencing various social groups negatively; judges, lawyers, court employees, and litigants. Following is a set of statistics expressing the main judicial difficulties: According to the estimates carried out by the Judicial Information Center (JIC), the total number of yearly registered cases for all courts reaches 1.2 million cases (800 thousand at preliminary courts, 300 thousand at appeals courts, 100 thousand at the court of cassation); the total number of cases handled yearly for all courts is about 15 million cases, this number is expected to consistently increase, since the overall ruling capacity does not exceed 800 thousand cases annually; the capacity of collected claims resulting from fines and contraventions is about 20% of overall claims; the accumulated number of cases at the Experts Authority (one of the support agencies) is increasing annually. Obviously, there were many problems with the system in place, which according to the statistics were not about to be resolved any time soon; as the number of accumulated cases was annually increasing instead of decreasing. All the above mentioned difficulties affected both the citizens and the governmental employees negatively, there was waste of time & effort for both of them. Elderly people as well as people with disabilities were unable to stand in long queues to obtain the services. There was a lot of corruption due to the direct contact between the applicant & the service provider. All the mentioned problems made it very essential for the Egyptian Government to take an initiative with the target of developing the Justice sector , aiming at delivering services to the citizens in an appropriate way.

B. Strategic Approach

 2. What was the solution?
The initiative was introduced by the Ministry of State for Administrative Development (MSAD), as the lead government ministry for the e-Government program in Egypt, since late 2004. That includes all different levels of courts involved, as well as supporting authorities (experts, forensic medicine and public notarization). In addition to the Prosecution Authorities who are directed by the Ministry of Justice (MOJ). The stakeholders of the initiative are public prosecution authorities, family prosecution/courts, general prosecution authorities, administrative prosecution, preliminary courts, cassation court, appeal courts, and administrative courts. The initiative was implemented through a cooperation protocol signed off between the MOJ (as the Ministry overseeing judicial public services and support authorities) and MSAD (as the Ministry responsible for e-Government). In order to follow up the implementation of the project, it formed a committee consisting of the Minister of State for Administrative Development, Minister of Justice, their deputies and other relevant personnel. MSAD played an essential role as the main coordinator between the different stakeholders involved; in addition to its multinational software development partners and their local private-sector partners as the expertise responsible for the development and implementation of the system automation. The Judicial Information Center (JIC) plays the role of the central data center for the JPD initiative. It is the central hub which hosts all the related information from courts and other relevant bodies with the exception of data related to supporting authorities that do not offer public services such as the Experts Authority and Forensic Medicine Authority which both host their own applications and databases. Unlike the Experts Authority and Forensic Medicine Authority, the Public Notary Authority is highly concerned with the public preference which leads to providing adequate services to the public. The most important strategy followed was setting a clear vision with relevant objectives, and aligning all relevant stakeholders to that vision. The JPD Initiative’s main vision can be elaborated as follows: An efficient and powerful judicial system, relieving the public dealing with the courts systems from all complicated procedures, offering them state-of-the art services; increasing the case handling capacity at all court levels and clearing all queues and backlogs; as well as enhancement of the rulings execution capacity by the introduction of appropriate mechanisms and simple procedures. Adoption of business process reengineering as a tool for simplifying courts processes was very helpful. These processes represent services to attorneys, citizens and other plaintiffs, defendants and their representatives. Processes were scrutinized by administrative burden reduction experts and unnecessary steps were removed. Another strategy was securing top management’s support at all relevant bodies, ensuring smooth and timely implementation of the project. Another main strategy followed was capacity building of civil servants who will be using the actual IT applications "most of them were computer-illiterates". Continuous training leads them to be positive elements and promotes their sense of belonging. Outsourcing and utilizing the expertise of multinational and private-sector ICT & institutional development partners was essential. The IT part of the project was carried out within a rebate agreement between the government and multinational partners to finance the development and consulting services activities as a percentage of the cost of software licenses purchased. These strategies have been established through: compilation and documentation of all judicial procedures; co-ordination between all participating entities; implementation of state-of-the art automated procedures through the adoption of ICTs (workflow, electronic archiving, computerized hearings); linking judicial procedures and rulings to the citizen’s national ID number; creating service-offering outlets; developing HR; development of work environment; outsourcing most activities to specialized firms. In addition, these strategies have benefited different social groups such as citizens, lawyers, and the court houses.
 3. How did the initiative solve the problem and improve people’s lives?
The initiative improved one of the most complicated and sensitive sectors in the Egyptian Government “Justice” with all its supporting entities, for the first time. It paid attention to automating the judicial processes and facilitating integration and information-flow between judicial organizations in Egypt and other governmental entities as well as between governmental entities and themselves promoting “transparency”. This allowed for a case management system that reduced cost and time consumed and provided monitoring and evaluation of the judicial organizations’ performance. The new concept of “Government now delivers” was achieved; new service delivery channels were introduced to the citizens “internet, mobile WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), Front offices, public kiosks, etc. and services required by the citizens through internet “e-transactions” are delivered to citizens through different payment methods “e-payment and cash-on-delivery”. Also digital signature was introduced for further personalization of services & identity verification for sensitive & financial transactions. The work environment was developed & human resources were improved through providing continuous training to the employees (capacity Building programs) ; which increased their efficiency & sense of belonging. Also separation between the applicant " citizen" & the service provider " employee" was achieved leading to preventing corruption.

C. Execution and Implementation

 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
The Ministry of State for Administrative Development (MSAD) approached the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) and the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) with an offer to introduce ICT to their processes and services, including supporting agencies, as a tool for increasing efficiency and enhancing transparency to achieve much needed swift justice. Both the MOJ and the SJC welcomed the initiative and a cooperation framework was signed in February 2008. This cooperation created a high-level committee formed of both Ministers and other relevant members to run the implementation. The scope of work was clearly defined by covering all types and levels of courts "Court of Cassation , Appeal Courts, Preliminary Courts , Family Courts" , prosecution offices, supporting agencies and other relevant bodies. System automation scope was set to include a case management system and an internal workflow automation system, to integrate all relevant judicial/supporting bodies and to establish a link to the National ID Database for accurate personal information for both plaintiffs and defendants. Setting up service provision outlets (one stop shop) within courts instead of in-office services was also considered. In order to implement the initiative, the scope of work had to be carried out through two parallel tracks. The first track aimed at: - Developing judicial procedures in courts and general prosecution authority. - Developing applications and procedures in supporting authorities and departments within the MOJ. - Enforcing control, transparency and accessibility procedures and information. - Developing new service delivery channels for judicial services. - Rolling out and deploying new systems. - Creating the national judicial case database. - Developing highly qualified human resources capable of managing the new system (capacity-building programs). - Improving the work environment. The second track aimed at: - Enforcing ruling execution procedures. - Securing the link of all executive bodies within the country to the national judicial case database. - Setting quality standards and KPIs as important tools to monitor & evaluate the progress of the activities of the project as well as the processes involved The first step of implementation was through institutional development experts who introduced necessary and appropriate enhancements ahead of information systems deployment, by following different methodologies including shadowing and mystery shopping. Institutional development experts delivered their reports, and their recommendations were implemented. In parallel, extensive training courses started for civil servants in different judicial authorities. Next, the development partners came in and developed their respective components of the systems. The project is currently completed in 62 different courts (of different types and levels), as well as in some of the supporting authorities. The total plan covers 8 appeal courts, 19 satellite appeal courts, 28 preliminary courts, 39 satellite preliminary courts, 5 family courts, 113 family prosecution offices, and supporting authorities, which are expected to be completed by mid-2015.
 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
As mentioned before, the initiative was introduced by the MSAD, as the lead government ministry for the e-Government program in Egypt, since late 2004. The MOJ welcomed the idea, and the implementation of the initiative was through a cooperation protocol that was signed off between the MOJ (as the Ministry overseeing judicial public services and support authorities) and MSAD (as the Ministry responsible for e-Government). In order to follow up the implementation of the project, it formed a committee consisting of the Minister of State for Administrative Development, Minister of Justice, their deputies and other relevant personnel. That includes all different levels of courts involved , as well as supporting authorities (experts, forensic medicine and publicity and notarization). In addition to the Prosecution Authorities who are directed by the Ministry of Justice (MOJ). The stakeholders of the initiative are public prosecution authorities, family prosecution/courts, general persecution authorities, administrative persecution, preliminary courts, cassation court, appeals courts, and administrative courts. MSAD played an essential role as the main coordinator between the different stakeholders involved; in addition to its multinational software development partners and their local private-sector partners as the expertise responsible for the development and implementation of the system automation "Design". The Judicial Information Center (JIC) plays the role of the central data center for the JPD initiative. It is the central hub which hosts all the related information from the courts and other relevant bodies with the exception of data related to supporting authorities such as the Experts Authority and Forensic Medicine Authority which both host their own applications and databases as they do not offer public services. Unlike the Experts Authority and Forensic Medicine Authority, the Public Notary Authority is highly concerned with the public preference which leads to providing adequate services to the public.
 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
It is expected that with such a huge project the resources utilized were numerous. Ministry of State for Administrative Development (MSAD) led the project with a senior project manager, reporting to the high-level committee formed of the Minister of Justice, the Minister of State for Administrative Development, their deputies and other relevant personnel to follow-up the initiative’s implementation. Respective contact persons were identified within all participating judicial authorities. Those were all in direct contact with the appointed project managers from MSAD. The financial resources went through two phases during the project. First phase, total cost was around 85 million Egyptian Pounds (around US$11.5M). This covered the costs for all hardware (servers, PCs, networks, etc…), software licenses (which in turn covers development costs, as per agreement with partners), communication lines, training & human resources development, and workplace development. The first phase covered developing all modules for the case management systems, as well as deployment at least one of each type of courts, or other relevant bodies. The second phase, which is currently running, covers the deployment/roll-out of case management and other information systems at all remaining judicial entities. Its cost is estimated at 200 million Egyptian Pounds (around US$30 million). The main technology consultant in the project was the multinational partners, who brought in their local development partners through the strategic rebate agreement between them and the Egyptian Government. Institutional development experts were brought to review and reengineer the internal processes and public services offered by judicial entities. On top of that, the Ministry of Justice offered the services of its Judicial Information Center’s ICT team.
 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
The initiative has many successful outputs, the most significant are: - Automating the process of filing police reports in police stations, as well as integrating police station information systems with those of prosecution offices/district attorneys’ offices, in order to decrease lead time in processing cases, fight corruption and increase accuracy. Such information systems would also aid in building a decision-support system for crime-fighting. Egypt currently has 358 police stations, and the scope targets the central office and 50 police stations, along with integration with corresponding prosecution offices. - Increasing the number of beneficiaries “citizens, Lawyers and judges” through availing different service delivery channels with different payment methods "e-payment & cash on delivery" such as: Availing online services through the internet (more than 100 services related to Preliminary Courts, Appeal Courts & Court of Cassation are available on the internet); Mobile WAP (Wireless Application Protocol); Front Offices (One Stop Shop); Public Kiosks. Lawyers also benefited from the personalization of services where they had access to all cases they are working on and can receive push notifications for updates on their cases. - Publishing the new application in the Court of Cassation, 26 Preliminary courts out of 28 , 8 Appeal courts, 22 Family prosecutions , a number of sub-courts , some branches of the State Council , some Public Notary Authority offices in different governorates and linking courts of different levels with the Justice Information Center (JIC). This has decreased the queues in the judicial entities saving time and effort for both the citizens and the service providers and aiming at separating between the applicant &the service provider "fighting corruption and increasing transparency". Decreasing the time needed to end the procedures of a case submission. Case Submission procedures used to take about 3 days and now with the new system it only takes 10 minutes. - Improving the work environment in the entities, automating the work-cycles & deleting the unnecessary procedures which led to increasing the employees' productivity as well as the number of the services delivered to the citizens. Raising the skills of the employees through capacity building programs which increases their sense of belonging. - Increasing the Egyptian Post's revenue through the cash-on-delivery method “services via the internet” reflecting the number of transactions done through the internet which is around 10 thousand monthly transactions.
 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
- Making sure that objectives & activities of the project are "SMART" : Specific , Measurable , Achievable , Realistic and Time-Based. - Using key performance indicators " KPIs" as a very important tool to monitor & evaluate the progress of the activities of the project. - Generating periodic reports on the status of the activities and budget through a Performance Management System. - Arranging regular meetings with the stakeholders & the entities participating in the implementation process to make sure that the plan is completed according to the schedule and the agreed upon deliverables. - Availing regular training programs to the service providers to improve their skills & increase their performance. - Following up with the service providers to solve any problems & avail any requirements. - Giving great importance to the feedback of the applicants " citizens" through questionnaires on their satisfaction regarding the services they have "customer satisfaction". - Keeping record of the daily statistics related to the services delivery channels "website visits with the number of transactions, number of services done through front offices & public kiosks ….etc". - Taking the feedback of the entities providing the services regarding the productivity of the employees , number of services offered to the citizens, number of problems solved ….etc.
 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
The project faced several obstacles. Most importantly, were the cultural obstacles represented in the digital divide, computer illiteracy and resistance of civil servants to change who felt threatened by such development and thought they would be replaced by younger, computer-literate civil servants. This was overcome by providing them with extensive IT training courses over a relatively long period of time. Also, they were engaged in requirements’ gathering and design phases of the case management systems to promote their sense of ownership and belonging, hence their keenness to make it a success. A strategic challenge was the lack of IT-skilled personnel within judicial offices. Top management secured a budget for hiring qualified personnel and/or creating service contracts with private sector partners to provide systems with periodic updates and maintenance. From a technical perspective, interoperability and multiple service delivery channels were also challenges, as the information systems were to be integrated with other authorities. This was overcome by the project’s technical consultants, through setting interoperability and multi-model standards for the local development partners, in order to ensure smooth operation in the future. Unreliable electricity, bad internet connections and weak infrastructure at some remote judicial offices were unforeseen infrastructure obstacles. Strong high-level government support came in action to develop infrastructure at those locations. Unsuitable work environment was a further obstacle, which was addressed by setting aside part of the budget for workplace improvement. The final obstacle was the large number of stakeholders involved in the project in addition to the IT partners. Aligning vision had to be ensured, as well as building a sense of ownership within all relevant stakeholders. Extra effort was put into strengthening co-ordination, improving collaboration, as well as providing leadership at many levels. A special high-level committee was formed to ensure commitment and follow-up of all initiative‘s activities.

D. Impact and Sustainability

 10. What were the key benefits resulting from this initiative?
Increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the judicial systems at all levels by revising all procedures while securing monitoring and using control tools, as well as introduction of ICT tools. Reengineering and streamlining judicial services’ processes are key achievements that led to a considerable time reduction in service delivery (as an example : time elapsed to initiate a case in preliminary court has been reduced from 3 days to 10 minutes. Automating judicial main authorities together with their internal departments (such as: archiving, financial, summons services, transcripts issuance, etc…) and external support departments or authorities (such as: Experts Authority, forensic medicine authority and Public notary). Case management systems were developed for different categories and levels of courts (over 10 different systems) covering the registration of the case lifecycle starting from its initiation down to the final ruling, with systems are integrated with electronic archiving for related documents. The project is currently completed in 26 preliminary courts out of 27, 21 preliminary satellite courts , 8 appeals courts out of 8 , 4 appeal satellite courts, 1 cassation court (we have only 1 cassation court) , 2 family courts , 23 family prosecution offices, Main and 4branches of the State Council , 100 of Public Notary Offices as well as in of the supporting authorities like forensic Medicine and Expertise Authority. The initiative provided one stop shop for courts, a front office where all transactions and paper work take place, to reduce the lengthy procedures and ease the process to the citizens. The key benefits of the initiative had a great positive impact on multiple areas and different social groups (such as citizens, lawyers, and courthouses). First, the impact of such automation is being clearly perceived by all beneficiaries for the service both front and back ends. Elementary courts are also part of one of MSAD’s projects for enhancing public sector performance through introducing quality standards that rely on the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) into the operation of the public sector in Egypt, which is based on the EFQM Excellency model. The quality pillars according to CAF are the organization’s leadership, strategy and planning, people, partnerships and resources, processes, citizen/customer oriented results and key performance results. Total Quality Management (TQM) standards are being rolled-out in Elementary Courts by Assessing the Gap for selected pilot courts according to the pillars, spreading the quality culture among court employees (top management, middle management, front line employees) as well as training quality unit teams to perform the role of TQM experts, and enabling minimum quality standards in court front offices. Citizens are actively engaged in the evaluation process using an online rating and evaluation platform (www.rateyourservices.gov.eg). Quality and accessibility of services are greatly improved, and new service delivery channels have been introduced for easier accessibility. Various court services can be accessed online through www.egypt.gov.eg or through the mobile -services which are available on the national WAP services portal. These delivery channels were provided through kiosks. Over 500 kiosks were introduced and accessible at rural areas across the country. It became possible to enquire about case status and pending issues, acquire e-documents and request transcripts for rulings or various certificates/documents. Such documents were usually delivered at the court within 15 days of application. Now, using the Egyptian Post for shipping and the innovative payment model of cash-on-delivery or the online payment, requested document is delivered within 72 hours to the address specified by the beneficiary. Another key benefit to mention is promotion of transparency through the separation between the applicants "citizens" and service providers "civil servants". Replacing manual systems by automated ones leaves very little space for fixing a court date informally or tampering with case documents. Thus, for the first time in 50 years, there were no accumulated cases for the judicial year 2009-2010, and even some of the backlog was resolved within this judicial year.
 11. Did the initiative improve integrity and/or accountability in public service? (If applicable)
Initiative sustainability has always been an issue for previous e-Government projects. It was an issue that was in mind during the planning phase of the project, which leads to developing a master plan covering implementation; roll out, financial requirements and sustainability. In the initial scope which included a master plan, part of it was sustainability plan as follows: - Developing judicial procedures in courts and general prosecution authority. - Developing systems and procedures in supporting agencies and departments within the Ministry of Justice. - Rolling out and deploying new systems. - Creating the national judicial case database. - Developing highly qualified human resources capable of managing the new system. - Developing the work environment. - Developing new channels for judicial services. - Creating continuous development plan (sustainability and future development). Although the project had resulted in reduced public service costs for the beneficiaries, it had resulted in better efficiency within the relevant authorities. That resulted in more revenues for the service providers. For the purpose of sustainability, an amount of that extra revenue was allocated for the continuous development of the information systems, as well as for capacity building. ICT development programs were put in place so that information systems teams would be always up to date with the latest technologies, and able to maintain the applications as well as provide support for systems’ users. Those costs also covered communication line costs. A specialized training unit was set up within the Judicial Information Center (JIC) to provide training for new systems users, as well as further the use of ICT within the judicial authorities. The JIC is also responsible for maintaining the central national judicial database, linking all judicial entities in Egypt together, which is hosted at the JIC’s data center. In addition the JIC is mandated with setting up and overseeing institutional measures (structures and processes) to maintain information systems within the judicial system. Further measures were taken to ensure the sustainability of the national judicial database and other judicial systems, by the setup of a geographically remote disaster recovery site, synchronizing daily with the main site. The system is based on a workflow architecture that does not hardcode any processes within the system. Also, it has been built around the Egyptian laws related to cases management which was the basis for most legislation in many Arab countries. The implementing partner is currently negotiating the deployment of the developed systems in a neighboring Arab State. Since, the first court was launched 3 years ago, the quality of services (through different channels) were measured to remain stable throughout the period The initiative started in the Justice Sector and it can be replicated in the rest of the entities, now with a system established, in less time and with less effort and we can also support the African countries in implementation. We can also use the same policies and methodologies to implement the initiative in different sectors such as Education, Health, Tourism… etc.
 12. Were special measures put in place to ensure that the initiative benefits women and girls and improves the situation of the poorest and most vulnerable? (If applicable)
The lessons learned from implementing this project can be summarized as follows: The importance of using ICT as a tool to achieve development Emphasizing the importance of changing the culture of people (resistance); so that they can accept new ideas & deal with them easily. Giving Priority to human resources and providing Building capacity programs to raise the skills of the service providers dealing with the new systems & to increase their sense of belonging. The need for integration between entities and sharing information/data to create transparency. The importance of providing different channels “Website, Front offices, Public Kiosks… etc.” to avail services for the citizens in an easier & more efficient manner. This helps to decrease the queues in the organizations and consequently save time and effort for both the applicants & the service providers. The necessity of having the Government's support to assure the sustainability of the project. The need for follow-up on the project and creating an evaluation tool to manage the project's performance to solve any problems on the spot and close the continuous development cycle.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   Ministry of State for Administrative Development
Institution Type:   Government Agency  
Contact Person:   Ahmed Shaaban
Title:   Government Services Development Program Director  
Telephone/ Fax:   +2(02)24000 100 / +2(02)22628 003
Institution's / Project's Website:  
E-mail:   akamal@ad.gov.eg  
Address:   13 Salah Salem Street, Nasr City, Cairo , Egypt
Postal Code:   11763
City:   Cairo
State/Province:  
Country:  

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