The fairytale department within the Ministry of Justice has released an announcement to an eager press that the Citius computer system will be up and running today or tomorrow.
The transfer of records is almost complete but some problems remain especially in Faro.
Later, the Ministry of Justice will be surveying the mountain of work that has built up since September 1, the launch date of Citius that heralded a brave new world for the Portuguese system of processing the documentation necessary to administer justice swiftly, accurately and with the minimum of delay.
The Citius computer system should be operational throughout the country between this Tuesday and Wednesday, with the electronic transfer of court proceedings functioning. The district of Faro will be the last to be up and running, according to the edict.
This possibly reckless announcement does not mean that it will be ‘business as usual’ in the country’s courts, even the ministry recognises that this is an unlikely scenario with a spokesman for the Supreme Judicial Council, Albertina Pedroso, commenting "The operation of Citius across the country is certainly a breakthrough,” while recognising that this does not mean everything will be back to normal.
The union’s view is that there is a six weeks accumulation of work to get through in the face of staff shortages.
The Justice Minister Paula Teixeira da Cruz promised to hire 700 extra people to cope with this additional workload, a recruitment process that has yet to start - it is held up at the Ministry of Finance.
