Institutional Strengthening of the High Court Council
October 2015 - October 2017
Introduction
“4 Digits Consulting – Judiciary and Public Sector Support” (further: 4 Digits Consulting) has been awarded by USAID the Fixed Amount Award No. AID-169-F-15-00011 under RFA-169-15-000007, on September 28th, 2015, for the two-year project “Institutional Strengthening of the High Court Council” (further: Project). The value of this Grant Award was U.S. Dollars $500,000.
The purpose of the Project was to provide technical and material assistance to judicial institutions in Serbia, primarily to the High Court Council of Republic of Serbia, in order to strengthen its institutional capacity and to improve judicial independence and efficiency as key pillars of the 2013 - 2018 National Judicial Reform Strategy in Serbia.
In 2013 Serbian Government adopted the National Judicial Reform Strategy for period 2013-2018. The High Court Council (HCC) has been recognized in this Strategy as essential to Serbia’s judiciary independence and the wider rule of law. Since its establishment, the HCC has been gradually assuming authorities from the Ministry of Justice (MOJ). The final portion of authorities, amongst other financial authority over court staff and infrastructure was to be transferred from MOJ to HCC by June 2016, which has been postponed.
The HCC also made several important steps towards its better internal organization and transparency, such as development and adoption of the HCC Communication Strategy, creation of the application for HR management of judges, enhanced visibility and openness through better communication with court users, judges and general public.
Goals and Activites
Activities related to court efficiency included further efforts for more efficient and cost effective court system. Continuation of backlog reduction efforts were supported through creation of modern and efficient tools for gathering of information about cases from all the courts in Serbia, centralized on-line statistical reporting and improvements of existing e-filing methodology.
Activities related to improvement of transparency were directed in two ways. Firstly, internal transparency improvement, which included creation of comprehensive set of activities aimed at better internal communication and coordination of the court system in Serbia, performed through set of trainings and workshops for the HCC and court’s staff. External communication improvements were the result of improved internal communication, and were directed towards better awareness of court users and general public about the HCC’s and court’s activities, in order to build trust and confidence of the citizens in the court system.
The goal of the Project was to further develop administrative and technical HCC’s capacity to assume its full responsibilities within the context of a modern, independent judicial system, as well as to support Serbian courts to deliver justice in timely fashion to all court users.
The role of the HCC’s Administrative Office needed to be strengthened and further improved in order to fulfill its duties in the future period. Also, the HCC needed to enhance its budget and financial authority in order to secure all necessary preconditions for the courts to work effectively and impartially, in accordance to the best international standards and to achieve appropriate level of judiciary independence and autonomy, among other government branches.
Milestones
Creation of 2016 financial plans in accordance to new methodology and creation and delivery of financial training materials
Creation of financial plans is the crucial activity for the next financial year and proper functioning of the judiciary. The HCC and all the courts prepare their financial plans and budgets in accordance to their needs for the future period. The courts submit their financial plans to the HCC Material and Financial Affairs Sector (MFAS) in accordance to instructions prepared by the Ministry of Finance (The Treasury). The financial plans for 2016 were to be prepared under the new “program budgeting” methodology, as it replaced the “linear budgeting” methodology as an obsolete approach to budgeting process. The Project scope under this Milestone was to provide support to the HCC MFAS in preparation of the financial plans for 2016 under the program budgeting methodology.
The HCC’s Communication Strategy updated and Implementation of lay-judges module
The Communication Strategy is a basic communication and outreach document for the HCC and Serbian courts regarding external, internal and crisis communication. The HCC previously adopted a Communication Strategy for the period 2013-2015, supported by USAID "Separation of Powers Program". Prior to this the HCC did not have Communication Strategy, and hence did not have any procedural document aimed at communication with public, or internally within the court system. As of adoption of the first Communication Strategy, the HCC has developed internal procedures for the communication among courts, but also equally important, for communication with media, legal professionals and all other interested parties.
Implementation of the administrative staff module and Training of court users on two additional HR modules
Creation and implementation of Administrative staff module of the HCC HR management application is continuation of creation of comprehensive HR database for all employees in the judiciary. This activity supports the National Judiciary Reform Strategy, and forthcoming transfer of authorities from Ministry of Justice to the HCC, regarding administrative staff. The aim of the Project was to support the HCC to be adequately prepared for transition of authorities. An important segment of the implementation of the new modules was conducting user training.
Development of new methodology for budget creation and implementation of changes in case management systems
New methodology for budget creation is based on the so called “Program budgeting”, instead of previously used “Linear budgeting”. The difference is significant and is based on different approach to creation of budget plans and their execution. As of budget cycle 2015, all direct budget users have to use “program budgeting” in accordance to instruction made by Ministry of Finance. The new methodology envisages “targets” and “indicators” for all users, and tracks their implementation and execution, rather than routine transfer of assets for the users, based on their justified requests, which may have not been planned in advance.
The Project was to work with the High Court Council Material and Financial Affairs Sector on budget planning and execution activities, focusing on "needs based budget" and understanding the functioning of the "program budgeting" methodology.
Training on the new e-filing methodology in three pilot courts
E-filing methodology has been implemented in 2014 for the first time in the Serbian judiciary through USAID Separation of Powers Program project activities in several pilot courts. The idea of electronic communication between the courts and court users has been created in order to reduce administrative work on court side, and to enable better access to justice to court users. This is modern means of communication which should reduce the costs of communication on both sides, and speed up court procedures, with the final goal of improved efficiency in Serbian judiciary.
Court user satisfaction survey conducted
As part of the Year 1 Project activities, the HCC adopted the new Communication Strategy for period 2016 to 2018. Significance in the Strategy has been given to external communication, foremost communication with the general public. A significant input for reviewing the state of the judiciary is the opinion of the general public on the level of satisfaction with the judiciary. The Project addressed this through conducting a court user satisfaction survey. The results of this survey will provide the HCC a baseline for possible future annual surveys, which the HCC could perform on their own in accordance to the Communication Strategy, and monitor possible changes and trends in the public opinion.
Creation of financial plans for 2017 and creation of HCC lay-judges database completed
In order for the HCC MFAS to prepare financial plans for 2017, the HCC needed to gather and analyze financial data on court expenditure and needs. The Project assisted the HCC in these activities. The Project carefully monitored the activities related to the financial matters, and tailored its specific support to the HCC MFAS in the preparation of the financial plans, depending on the development of the situation. With the implementation of the additional module of the HR application for lay-judges, it was necessary to monitor the process of utilization of this system and the population of the lay-judges database. The Project provided support to the HCC as well as the individual courts in this process.
Creation of advanced e-Filing users database and creation of comprehensive set of recommendations for Backlog Reduction
Milestone #11 envisages delivery of activities related to two areas, e-filing and backlog reduction. Namely, after the implementation of an advanced e-Filing methodology, the process of utilization needs to be monitored in order to provide possible additional support to the users and adjustment to the system. The result of this process is the creation of the database of users who utilize an advanced e-Filing methodology/system. Upon completion of the implementation in three pilot courts, the Project performed comprehensive analysis of achieved results and compared relevant indicators such as: number of users, number of electronic filings, reduction in cost per case due to reduced number of paper documents, savings in time, and possibly other parameters, as they occur during the process.
Capacity building report on improved budgetary capabilities and creation of HCC administrative staff database completed
As of the adoption of the 2017 judiciary budget, the Project was to provide support to the HCC MFAS in monitoring of the execution of this budget. Even more importantly, the Project would assist the MFAS in adopting to the changes related to the transfer of budgetary competencies from the MoJ to the HCC. The Project’s activities under this milestone were to be tailored to provide needed and meaningful support to the MFAS in order to improve their capability to function in regard to the transferred competencies. Having in mind the fact that the transfer of financial authorities from the MoJ to the HCC has been postponed, the Project tailored its support to the HCC in assisting the MFAS in improving certain business processes. These activities were documented in the Capacity Building Report, submitted as deliverable under this Milestone.
Achievements
The impact and results of the “Institutional Strengthening of the High Court Council” project to the High Court Council and other judiciary institutions shows that this type of donor’s support is meaningful, especially in areas where Serbian judiciary needs improvements in order to meets the goals and requirements of the Chapter or 23. The achieved results will contribute to better access to justice to Serbian citizens and strengthen rule of law by enhancing capacity of Serbian judiciary institutions to the benefit of the court users’, legal professionals and public in general. However, the most important achievement is commitment of the HCC and other judiciary institutions to further improve their operations and transparency towards organized, predictable and fair justice system. This project also showed that the HCC is capable of conducting judiciary reform projects with local organizations and has capacity to further implement changes in its daily operations and in coordination with other judiciary bodies towards full implementation of the highest international standards.
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