On the day that the Citius computer system is meant to go live after a delay of six weeks, the head of the programme has offered his resignation
Rui Mateus Pereira, head of the Institute for Financial Management and Equipment of Justice (IGFEJ), confirmed today that he had offered to resign and does not expecting a reprieve.
The super-fast computer system, which was designed to streamline court processes and was a key part in Justice Minister Paula Teixeira da Cruz’s reorganisation of the country’s court service, has been slammed in the news over the past six weeks due to the fact it did not work, a situation that forced a large number courts to cease functioning altogether.
Citius has been rebuilt, re-programmed, polished up and relaunched and now is said to be working in more than half of the country’s courts with the remainder due to go live by the end of Thursday.
The computer system was tested in Faro today with the electronic transfer of court proceedings said to be complete.
Faro was the last area to become operational so the Thursday target date for a fully operational system may yet be achievable, but few in the business are holding their breath.
The president of the Union of Judicial Officers, Fernando Jorge, commented that the availability of the Citius system "does not mean that everything is settled," adding that it will take some time to get everything standardised.
On Tuesday, Albertina Pedroso, from the Supreme Judicial Council found that although the return to operation was a major breakthrough, one could not speak of a fully functioning court system and that despite Faro being claimed to be the last region to go live, the system still was not working in Oporto on Monday.
The man in charge of technology from the Institute for Financial Management and Equipment of Justice, Carlos Brito, rather bravely said that Citius would be operational in all areas from today.
The problems in the Citius software began on launch day, September 1, and drew criticism from judges, lawyers and court officials who warned of chaos in the courts. In fact many courts just ground to a halt and are now an estimated 8 months behind.
There have been opposition calls for the resignation of the Justice Minister, but Paula Teixeira da Cruz has said little throughout this period of crisis in the courts, except that there of course will be a full enquiry – ‘lessons learned... robust feeback loops established...ensure it never happens again...’ etc. etc.
