The Egyptian political leadership has determined to bring effective change in all judicial proceedings, starting from police departments, through the handling of cases and the issuance of judgments. They have initiated “Digital Transformation Program” to move from paper-based work to completely electronic cycle by establishing an integrated digital platform with the collaboration of various information centers (Ministry of Interior, Public Prosecution, Ministry of Justice) and under the supervision of Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT).
The aim is to maximize the use of information technology to achieve swift justice, combat corruption, reduce expenses, ensure transparency, and administrative flexibility through the comprehensive integration of the three axes. They also aim to promote digital awareness and culture among the system's operators in the three sectors.
Ministry of Interior – Police Departments
The police force specializes in maintaining order, public security, and morality, as well as protecting lives, dignity, and property. Its main task is to prevent and control crimes, ensuring the peace and security of citizens in all areas. The police are also responsible for enforcing the laws and regulations imposed on them.
Public Prosecution offices
Is an integral part of the judicial authority in Egypt. It is an independent authority that falls under the Ministry of Justice administratively. Its responsibilities include conducting investigations in cases and complaints and defending the rights of society and the people. The scope of its responsibilities extends to monitoring the implementation of court judgments. The Public Prosecution acts as a "noble adversary" in every criminal case presented to the court, carrying out its work with absolute neutrality.
The Public Prosecution is an essential part of the formal structure of the court as it represents the people and society. On the other hand, the execution of judgments cannot be considered valid without the presence of the public prosecutor's representative in court. The Public Prosecution, alone, has the right to initiate criminal proceedings in the courts. The Attorney General (representing the people) or any of his/her assistants from the prosecution members perform the functions of the Public Prosecution.
Ministry of Justice - Courts
The realm of Egyptian jurisprudence, the judicial authority operates at two levels: Courts of First Instance and Appellate Courts. It is an autonomous entity comprising diverse types and degrees of courts. Ordinary Judiciary: This encompasses specialized and criminal law courts, including the Court of Cassation, the Court of Appeal, Courts of First Instance, and Petty Courts. Each of these courts is responsible for adjudicating matters brought before it in accordance with the law.
The Pain: The Situation Prior to Project Implementation
For decades, police reports were manually recorded and documented in the notebooks of each police department, and they were exchanged among police departments and prosecution offices in paper format. This reliance on paper-based and manual work had an impact on direct dependence on paperwork and notebooks.
Such reports were received in paper form by the partial prosecution offices and recorded in manual registers. They were circulated within the prosecution's internal processes in a paper-based manner. Additionally, investigations, session reports, prosecution decisions, and case files were manually recorded.
Such cases were received from the prosecution in paper format and recorded in special registers, then circulated within the courts in paper form. This had an impact on the direct reliance on paper-based work and notebooks. The cases were manually circulated, and session minutes, court decisions, and judgments were recorded on papers and case files.
Moreover, sessions for misdemeanour cases were manually scheduled and papers were exchanged between the courts and the prosecution manually. This paper-based process resulted in the possibility of damage or loss of paper documents, as well as the difficulty of extracting information and statistics with historical implications or identifying crime rates in different geographical areas.
The Proposed Solution:
Law Enforcement Automation with the aim to maximize the utilization of information technology to achieve efficient yet swift justice, combat corruption, reduce expenses, ensure transparency, and administrative flexibility through the comprehensive integration of these three axes.
The system aimed to promote digital awareness and culture among the system operators in the three entities, in line with the Egyptian state's digital transformation strategy, and to reduce litigation time by relying on digital systems and real-time integration. MCIT as the initiative sponsor, selected egabi Solutions as the best long-term local partner with proven track record in development projects to assist in the digital transformation journey of such important national wide initiative.
The Steps Taken: Our Path Towards the Solution
To accomplish this task, egabi formed three specialized dedicated teams to conduct preliminary analysis and evaluation to ensure that the work teams are familiar with the three entities work procedures and documentation. They conducted a comprehensive review of the existing work procedures in the three entities through separate teams of business analysts who held series of meetings with the judges, officers, and Prosecutor.
The purpose was to study how to improve work procedures and achieve the optimal future state, ensuring the strategic objectives of the project are met and providing a comprehensive and real-time monitoring of the processes and directorates for decision-makers. As part of the preparation for this task, the company conducted internal working sessions to familiarize the team with the basic technical terms related to law enforcement, the organizational structure within the three entities, and general information about the work procedures.
Through a series of consecutive visits and interviews, the nature of the data related to reports and other transactions and the relationship between these data during the workflow were identified. The work team compiled the results of the visits, interviews, statistical reports, and discussions to reach a unified framework based on the collected information. Additionally, current problems resulting from the use of manual systems and the lack of necessary automation mechanisms were identified.
The applications and services were developed using multiple technologies. The technical team studied the proposed technical architecture of the platform to enable integration between the three main entities in the law enforcement axis, enabling real-time and accurate data exchange. This was done in light of a comprehensive understanding of all parties' needs for the development of work procedures and the future state of the system.
Challenges Faced During Implementation
The project faced several challenges during implementation, which can be summarized as follows:
- The workflow in the Egyptian judicial system was the result of years of accumulated experience, resulting in a complex array of possible scenarios that required continuous and immediate resolution.
- Adapting to continuous changes in decisions and workflow cycles and designing a flexible work environment.
- In a sensitive and specialized work environment, it was crucial to train the multidisciplinary project team on how to deal with various stakeholders to build trust in the team's ability to accomplish tasks and gain credibility in information handling. Therefore, the team was carefully selected based on technical expertise and communication skills.
- User-friendliness was a critical consideration in the design to ensure good acceptance of applications by users.
- Data and information sensitivity necessitated rigorous testing to ensure accurate data exchange with minimal errors.
- Time constraints posed significant challenges, as the company aimed to reduce project timelines without compromising product quality, understanding the project's extensive impact on various sectors.
- The different nature of system users (employees, officers, prosecutors and judges).
- Streamlining the workflow within sessions easily and quickly without involving many steps.
- Requests for system modifications that contradicted the analysis documents.
Situation After Successful Implementation
- Most of the Police stations are automated and the report is being entered on the system and sent within the same day to prosecution offices.
- All prosecution offices are automated 100%
- Most of the courts are automated
- The workflow cycle, from various departments to prosecution offices and courts, has been fully automated, starting from the entry of reports to the issuance of judgments and the execution process.
- Integration has been achieved with several supporting entities in the judicial system, such as forensic medicine, resulting in significant time and effort savings in completing the litigation process.
- Cases can now be exchanged at an extremely high speed, and obtaining statistics, reports, and monitoring the progress of work in different entities can be done instantly without waiting for periodic reports and statistics.
- The appeals system (objections, appeals, etc.) has been fully automated outside the scope of the Public Prosecution without requiring the concerned individual to come to the prosecution's premises, saving time and effort for individuals and entities alike.
- Execution-related work and claims have been automated and integrated with the General Security Department, enhancing the speed and ensuring the achievement of criminal justice.
- Easy extraction of information and statistics with historical implications or identification of crime rate indicators in different geographical areas.
We congratulate the Egyptian government on advancing digital transformation programs and achieving electronic readiness in the law enforcement sector. We take pride in egabi solutions, the digital developer of this digital platform, and we are always delighted to be an active part in driving development in various fields.