State Reform: Digitalization in Justice and Institutions

The government has chosen state reform as one of its main priorities, and to signal this priority, the Ministry of State Reform was created. If we examine the composition of this ministry, we see that its structure includes a Secretary of State for digitization and another for simplification. I consider it very positive that there is a ministry with the authority to implement cross-cutting reforms in areas such as digitization. Some measures only make sense if there is a comprehensive solution encompassing various entities under the jurisdiction of different ministers.

Executive Order No. 266/2024, of October 15, established the electronic processing of processes and procedures within the Public Prosecutor's Office. Progress toward the complete dematerialization of processes is the future and an inevitable reality. In the past, some attempted to resist working with computers or IT systems, but quickly realized they had to adapt. Some countries have already dematerialized their judicial processes, with positive results. While it is true that we must look ahead and stop "being tied to paper," dematerialization raises several challenges that must be addressed.

Regarding the Public Prosecutor's Office, it is essential to implement a good IT system that allows coordination with criminal police agencies. Currently, the police conduct investigative tasks, such as questioning witnesses, interrogating defendants, preparing reports, and conducting searches and seizures. They submit these documents, in paper format, to the Public Prosecutor's Office, where the file is digitized. In turn, when a Public Prosecutor's Office magistrate issues an order that must be communicated to a specific police force, it is recorded in digital format in their IT system, but must be transmitted in paper format to the police. In short, there are currently several IT systems that do not communicate with each other, which leads to a huge waste of resources. It is important to note that, to alleviate this problem, attempts were made to establish the transmission of digitized files by email or via the cloud, but this was rejected by some entities.

It's worth noting that the various criminal police agencies also lack a unified information processing system, meaning each has only partial access to the data, significantly detrimental to the criminal investigation. Even within the same ministry, each police force has its own information processing system. If a defendant commits crimes within the jurisdiction of the PSP and GNR, both under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the information is partially recorded in each police force's computer system, depending on where the incident occurred, thus preventing a comprehensive overview. The Minister of State Reform's main challenge will be to bridge the gap between the various institutions and ministries and implement cross-cutting solutions, which is not easy, given the often prevalent "defense of the farm" mentality.

After the diagnosis, it is important to move forward with several solutions. The path to dematerializing and integrating criminal investigation data must involve the creation of a single computer system that the Public Prosecutor's Office and all police forces work within. Currently, police forces waste time entering data into their computer systems, which then have to be re-entered by the Public Prosecutor's Office. During inquiries, magistrates request information from the police on the status of the investigation, particularly to determine the reasons for delays. If magistrates had computer access to ongoing proceedings within criminal police agencies, the need to issue thousands of letters would be avoided, and investigations would be faster. Furthermore, it is also imperative that defendants, witnesses, and police officers be able to sign the records electronically, which is currently not possible. Currently, if a witness is questioned by the PSP, their questioning is recorded in the computer system. However, since digital signatures are not possible, the document is worthless, so the report must be printed on paper and signed manually. The investigation will only truly become dematerialized when this constraint can be overcome. Banks have long since resolved this issue.

Finally, over the past two decades, the Public Prosecutor's Office has invested in developing several software programs that would solve the problems I identified, but one entity has always blocked the issue. Currently, there is a software program ready to go live that would significantly advance criminal investigations. Despite the Attorney General's indication of this need from the beginning of his term, there is no solution in sight in the short term. We will soon see whether the Minister of State Reform has the political clout to truly transform the State or whether a few "inner circles" continue to block change...