Questions/Answers

In 2015, ADJD launched a project to automate the work of law enforcement officers in the courts, to accomplish all of their work including notification, eviction and seizure of movables, and to make decisions and obtain approvals by the enforcement judge electronically and simultaneously. This service is considered one of the best judicial practices in the world and falls under the strategy of the Judicial Department in enhancing the effectiveness and sustainability of judicial processes and ensuring the overall accessibility of services. This service has radically changed the work of court enforcement officers. The service is provided by a modern fleet of vehicles equipped with the latest technologies required to carry out the duties of the daily enforcement officers. The system also allows the restructuring and scheduling tasks of the enforcement officer so that he can carry out his work directly in the external enforcement sites without the need to approach the work place or the courts. The system is linked to the basic systems of the Judicial Department; it supports the feature of sending notices in the form of text messages to the enforcement file parties after the completion of each Procedural stage, as well as obtaining the signatures of the same parties electronically via smart devices. The system also provides the navigation and electronic mapping for easy access to the enforcement sites, as well as the ability to store and save all the data of the enforcement site so that they can be consulted at any time and at the required speed and the issuance of all reports and statistics and the availability of inventory and electronic photographing and storage of these images, In auctions.

The automation of the work of enforcement officers is regarded as a typical example of the digital transformation in public sector institutions in general and in the judicial institutions in particular. This system is an innovative judicial practice in the world. It harnesses modern technology to meet the needs of the enforcement orders, and integration of the governmental organizations through the use of central databases. In addition, this service is available equally and transparently to all citizens and residents of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. This innovation has contributed to improving the competence and effectiveness of the work of the execution officers and speeding up the achievement very significantly As detailed in the results.

This initiative is instrumental in achieving the objectives of the sixteenth goal of sustainable development "Peace, justice and strong institutions" by strengthening the rule of law and ensuring access to justice for all members of society, by accelerating the process of judicial enforcement and innovation of specialized technological solutions to implement the enforcement officers' mandates quickly and efficiently, which will help save a lot of time and effort and puts an end to the suffering of the parties concerned. This initiative also contributes to greater transparency in the work of the enforcement administration, providing the ability to follow up and accountability when needed through the features and ability of the applications to send and receive notifications and updates for each transaction.

The innovation of the smart enforcement System has had direct and indirect positive effects on various groups of community. These groups include all Abu Dhabi courts enforcement applicants requiring official enforcement intervention. Direct benefits can be summarized as follows: • Serving of rights and speeding up access to justice by shortening the time required to carry out enforcement work significantly, and enabling individuals and institutions, parties to a case, to have the enforcement orders and executive rulings as quickly as possible • Increase the productivity of the enforcement administration in Abu Dhabi courts by a large percentage of the number of tasks executed by the enforcement officers after applying the system compared to the pre-system level of completion of tasks. • Significant improvement in the planning and follow-up of the work of the execution officers, where the system determines the locations of the enforcement officers on a continuous basis, which facilitates communication with them and coordination of new tasks. • Facilitating the procedures of enforcement without visiting or approaching of the courts and enforcement administration as done before. • Document enforcement work electronically by allowing the system to take pictures and videos of movables and estates subject of enforcement, and use them in subsequent procedures.

This initiative comes in the context of innovation in the development of services to the public and the effective access to judicial enforcement services by all segments of society. Given that the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department is the only competent authority in the execution of judgments, the service of the Smart System for enforcement Officers is an innovative service in this context, and this innovation is a precedent breakthrough compared to judicial execution. On the other hand, the development of this system came from the needs of the local community in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, in accordance with the geographical mapping systems and applied positioning of addresses.

This system is an original innovation not only in the UAE but also globally. This is the conclusion of the comparison and analysis conducted by the Judicial Department in planning the development of the work of the enforcement officers. The service has been dedicated to the excellence of this service and its originality after the Judicial Department participated in several conferences and specialized forums to showcase the system and the possibilities it offers such as the Gitex International Fair and the Government Achievements Exhibition, as well as through the information shared by the visiting delegations who saw the system during their visits of the Judicial Department. Moreover, the media survey reports conducted by ADJD do not contain press releases or articles that provide similar services from other institutions.

The Judicial Department in general and the enforcement administration in particular have been working on the introduction of the system since its launch, as well as the upgrades that were added sequentially through a special media plan using different channels. Apart from the above mentioned external participations and the reception of delegations for the purpose of reviewing this experience, the Department does not have specific information about those who copied or used this innovation after adapting it to suit their specific needs.

This initiative has been innovative in terms of design. It has been fully developed internally whether in respect of human resources or financial costs. There has been cooperation among the Enforcement Division and the IT Division. The relevant team has presented the idea in the form of an initiative, after obtaining the initial approval, the IT Division team determined the technical requirements and proposed a mechanism for implementation and comparison. Thereafter, the initiative has been developed and tested according to the prescribed action plan. The working team has used creative solutions for implementation, including the design of a e-devices for use in the cars approved and allocated for the project.

This initiative is sustainable from several aspects. In terms of social sustainability, the initiative directly helps achieving social justice and stability, by guaranteeing the fair enforcement of judgments for case parties. In the economic field, this innovation will increase the confidence of companies and businesses in the economy of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, being supported by a judicial system and a transparent and distinctive systems. In terms of environmental sustainability, this service will save large quantities of paper compared to the traditional applications, as they will be replaced by electronic communication only. Needless to say, there will be reduction of carbon emissions since people do not need to approach the premises of Enforcement Division in person. On the other hand, the new service is sustainable as delays and crowdedness encounter by judgment beneficiaries before will be eliminated. Additionally, the initiative will lessen the risks of loss of any transactions as they are electronically stored and backed up in accordance with best international practices.

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This initiatives has been evaluated at several stages. Firstly, before the phase of implementation for the purpose of study and approval, then during the implementation phase to ensure progression of work according to the set action plan, timeframe, and percentage of completion. Lastly, at the phase of completion for the purpose of testing, delivery and comparing output with the approved plan. In coordination with the Enforcement Division, specific measures, indicators, and statistical reports are adopted to indicate the initiative’s impact, output, and contribution to work development, and then incorporated in their annual work plan, according to the nature and classification of the initiative.

• Average time required for enforcement, before and after the implementation of the new system: calculating the average period of time required for an enforcement official to complete his assignment and comparing the results before and after the implementation of the smart application. • Average number of assignments completed by an enforcement official before and after the smart application: calculating the average number of tasks performed daily by an enforcement official, and comparing the results before and after the implementation of the smart application. • Rate of customers satisfaction with the enforcement officials smart application: the rate of stakeholders’ satisfaction is measured by the use of an electronic questionnaire based on which the general satisfaction rate is extracted.

Average time required for enforcement (minutes): Before (1440 Minutes) After (15 Minutes Only) Average number of assignments completed by an enforcement official a day: Before (6) After (92) Rate of customers satisfaction with the enforcement officials smart application: 2016 (64%) 2017 (93%) 2018 (97%) In addition to the above results, the team in charge of the application has been honored by the UAE Ministry of Presidential Affairs in September 2018. The application has been also elected as one of the best innovations in Abu Dhabi Courts for the year 2018.

The initiative has been characterized by active participation of stakeholders both internally and externally throughout the different stages of implementation, Briefly, such participation included: • ADJD higher management: study and approve the proposal, with the directives to allocate the necessary resources for implementation. • Public: Get feedback from the public and use their comments as an input to the development process. • Abu Dhabi Municipality: there has been cooperation and coordination to use the approved mapping and GPS system of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. • General Directorate of Abu Dhabi Police: Communicate and coordinate with them to provide police members to accompany enforcement officials, when needed. • Enforcement Division staff: brainstorming sessions to set proposals and explore available options for the development of the work mechanism of the enforcement officials. • IT Division: analyze requirements, determine required technical specifications, and agree on the proposed solution and then implementation with the provision of support and maintenance. • Strategic Planning and Organizational Development Division: Evaluation and collaboration in the development of the performance indicators related to the Initiative. • Corporate Communication and International Cooperation Sector: Develop and implement an information media plan to introduce the new service and encourage the public to use it.

The system has undergone several improvements since it was introduced. After the launch of the e-system, many improvements were made in the addition of fields and options to the users. In addition, For a variety of other improvements, such as the possibility of adding attachments of different types, the notification of actions taken on enforcement orders, and other developments. By analyzing the indicators and metrics adopted for the initiative and the feedback received from stakeholders, the team seeks to complete the ongoing development work that will increase the quality of the services provided by the Enforcement administration to the public.