Second prize winner in category Digital Transformation in EPSA 2023-24
Context
The General Directorate for Digital Transformation of the Administration of Justice introduced the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) project as a response to the increasing backlog of files and requests that were accumulating in the Ministry of Justice. Due to a variety of factors, including increased migration in Spain, the Ministry was struggling with an overwhelming workload and failing to meet the legally established timelines of procedures, such as the granting of nationality by residence. Inspired by the digital agenda and aided by European funds aimed at digital transformation, the project sought to automate the basic and repetitive processes. After two-and-a-half years, the success of this initiative has led to 21 line processes being automated within the Ministry and full adoption within the Ministry’s digitalisation agenda.
Objectives
The RPA project consists of using software robots to automate workflows and repetitive processes within the Ministry of Justice. The main objective was to design systems that would facilitate the work of the civil servants and improve public service delivery to its maximum extent. They are looking for new opportunities in hyper-automation, which includes AI and machine learning. These robots follow clear and unambiguous rules and act consistently in similar situations, which improves the efficiency and quality of procedures. The implementation of RPA has made it possible to practically eliminate human errors, speed up the processing of matters and allow officials to dedicate themselves to higher value-added tasks. The robot works without the possibility of making decisions for itself, therefore it is always involved in tasks that do not impact judicial or administrative decisions. For these types of tasks, it has been shown that the software is faster and more effective, and it has led to significant time and cost savings since 2021 in the public service of the Administration of Justice. The RPA has been set up to handle the backlog of files and requests that have accumulated within the Ministry of Justice and to help streamline these processes so backlogs can be avoided in the future. The Directorate-General for Digital Transformation of the Administration of Justice is constantly in conversation with the various departments of the Ministry discussing which processes can be further automated.
Implementation
The RPA is achieving unprecedented success in the Ministry of Justice, not only providing benefits in terms of efficiency and process improvement, but also emphasising the importance of sustainability and energy efficiency.
To implement these digital solutions, the ICT department has to thoroughly familiarise itself with the internal processes of its departmental counterparts to adapt the software to their needs. For this, they created the Automation Excellence Centre, where the people involved can design and improve processes until they can ensure a zero margin of error. This high performance standard is set because of the sensitive nature of the documentation handled by the Ministry. The teams meet on a weekly basis to discuss performance and find solutions to any given issues. The system currently supports 25 000 internal users and 30 000 external users.
One of the most important challenges for the RPA lies in the intricacies of the legal processes and the sensitive nature of the information that is processed. However, the RPA has proved to be able to take over simple tasks without compromising sensitive information or impacting the subsequent judicial or administrative decisions. Its successful application to 21 lines of administrative processes have increased confidence its usefulness and ensured its continuous use within the Ministry.
Some notable examples of the benefits of RPA include the saving of more than 340 000 hours of work per year for processing staff in the granting of nationality, as well as the cancellation of criminal records of more than 400 000 people with all the social benefits that entails.