The Italian Ministry of Justice sought to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its justice bureaus. Increased demand and budget cuts had led to civil cases taking a decade to resolve and penal cases three years. Bureaus faced hiring freezes and outdated IT systems. The Ministry launched a project using EU funds to conduct business process reengineering at participating bureaus. This identified best practices to share. Results included reduced case resolution times by 40% in some areas and increased citizen satisfaction. The project helped bureaus improve service while maintaining operations during austerity.
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1. Justice & Security / June 2013
The Challenge
For the Italian Ministry of Justice, the combination of increased demand for
services and the impact of ongoing cost reductions was starting to affect the
quality of the justice system.
With civil cases taking up to a decade to go through the legal system and many
penal cases in front of the courts for up to three years, the Ministry recognized
a clear need for change. Moreover, service levels were inconsistent across the
various Justice Bureaus, with pockets of excellence and deficiencies in almost
every region of the country.
For their part, the Justice Bureaus themselves were also facing a number of
challenges. For one, budget cuts had largely resulted in widespread hiring freezes
that quickly reduced the number of resources available. Slow implementation of IT
systems and ineffective employee computer training were also resulting in subpar
performance being observed by the Bureaus.
Italys Justice Bureaus
Sharing best practices to improve service delivery
JUSTICE & SECURITY
CASE STUDY SERVICE IMPROVEMENT
What is a Justice Bureau?
In Italy, a Justice Bureau
refers to an entity which,
according to the constitution,
is responsible for the
administration of the law.
Justice Bureaus include:
Courts, Courts of Appeal,
Juvenile Courts, Mediators,
General Prosecutors and
Prosecutors.
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2. 2 | Justice & Security / June 2013
TheApproach
Leveraging financing from the European Social Fund, the Ministry (working
through the regional governments) developed a project to provide Business
Process Reengineering (BPR) services to the regional Justice Bureaus. The
program would be voluntary, meaning that individual Bureaus would need to
opt in in order to participate.
The individual projects were commissioned by their respective regional
governments who were at liberty to adapt the project to meet the needs
expressed by the Bureaus. However, all projects were to include a number of core
activities such as organizational assessments and BPR activities, IT system and
competency assessments, stakeholder communications and the definition of a
code of service to formalize service level targets across the country.
A large focus of the program was to identify and share best practices and process
excellence across each of the participating Bureaus to help the individual offices
make the most of their existing processes and IT systems. Change management
support would also play a role in ensuring that changes were not only effective,
but also sustainable in the long-term.
Ultimately, the Ministry and the Justice Bureaus expected that the project would
improve service delivery and reduce long-term costs, thereby simplifying access
to justice for citizens.
The Results
For those Bureaus that participated, the project was widely seen as a significant
success. Rigorous benchmarking exercises successfully identified a number of best
practices that were quickly rolled-out across the participating Bureaus.
The project team staffed by BPR professionals from KPMG in Italy worked
closely with employees from every level of the organization to develop tools
and approaches that would help them become more efficient and effective in
their day-to-day tasks. The project team also analyzed the broader organizational
structure of the Bureaus to identify redundant processes and controls, highlight
opportunities for greater efficiency and expose gaps in critical work-streams.
The BPR program
has helped us
realize that there
was an opportunity
to reinvent our
organization to pay
more attention to
the needs of our
clients. Its been a
thrilling experience
that we hope can
be used by other
Justice Bureaus
to advance the
sharing of best
practices.
Dott.ssa Rosalba Cipparano,
Bari Court of Appeal
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3. 3 | Justice & Security / June 2013
The project had a very positive
impact, particularly in the field of social
accountability.Whats more, we were able
to unlock real change within the offices and
even the most resistant employees started
to understand the importance of proper
analysis and improvement.
Dott.ssaAlessandra Scrimitore,
Lecce Court of Appeal
Participating Bureaus now report making better use of their existing processes
and IT resources and as a result are now able to meet their increasing
workload more efficiently without compromising citizens access to the justice
system. Anecdotal evidence also shows that these Bureaus have reduced their
cost-to-serve while simultaneously increasing efficiency.
For example, the redesign of the Sentences Office at the Bari Court of Appeal is
estimated to have resulted in a 40 percent savings in time; similar work within the
Justice Expenses group at the Court of Appeal in Lecce is estimated to have cut
the time in half for a single operation.
Citizen satisfaction has also greatly increased. Results from customer satisfaction
surveys from the Bari Court of Appeal show that 75 percent of respondents are
now fully satisfied with their experience with the Sentencing Office, with the
remainder claiming to be very satisfied. Whats more, 83 percent of respondents
rated the new system as excellent.
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4. Lessons Learned
The Ministry of Justices project provides a number of valuable lessons for any
government department seeking to become more effective and efficient in an era
of austerity and budget reductions.
Leverage best practices: The ability to break down organizational silos in
order to share experiences and best practices is often seen as a significant
challenge for governments. But by encouraging cooperation between the various
departments, governments can foster a culture of continuous improvement and
drive sustainable change across the organization.
Build momentum: While uptake from the individual Bureaus was initially slow,
this started to change as results of the projects success became evident. In fact,
as the first Bureaus started to show results, the program enjoyed a noticeable
uptake in the interest and enrollment from other parts of the country.This was
also true within individual Bureaus where successes within one office often
catalyzed engagement from other offices.
Maximize IT investment: Rather than installing a new organization-wide IT
system, the project aimed to enable employees to make better use of the
resources already available such as self-generating standardized forms that
allow both clerks and judges to avoid duplication and reduce redundant data
entry activities.This not only meant that the Ministry was able to maximize their
IT investments, but also allowed Bureaus to achieve significant improvements
without disrupting operations and service delivery.
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Publication name: Justice and Security: Italys Justice Bureaus Case Study
Publication number: 120341
Publication date: June 2013
Contact us
Paul Dijcks
Global Head
Justice & Security
Center of Excellence
KPMG in the Netherlands
T: +31703 382126
E: dijcks.paul@kpmg.nl
Francesco Patrizi
Senior Manager
KPMG in Italy
T: +39 3483080770
E: fpatrizi@kpmg.it
Lorenzo Scrocca
Senior Consultant
KPMG in Italy
T: +39 3483080773
E: lscrocca@kpmg.it
kpmg.com/justicesecurity