Buenos Aires’ judiciary embraces digital innovation to rebuild trust

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The province of Buenos Aires – home to the city of the same name – is one of 24 states in Argentina and has over 17 million residents, nearly 40 per cent of the country's population.

Argentina, the eighth largest country in the world in terms of size, is plagued by low levels of trust in public institutions, with less than one in five expressing confidence in the judiciary according to recent studies.

This is why the province’s Public Ministry (MPBA) has been “pushed to speed up digital transformation” to increase transparency, shares the ministry’s Chief Customer Officer and Head of the 2050 Innovation Program, Patricio Moyano Peña, with GovInsider.

“In a society dealing with the crisis of trust, technology has become a vital tool for rebuilding that trust,” he says.

In 2018, the province’s Public Ministry, which oversees judicial matters and houses the public prosecutor’s office, introduced the programme, which sought to introduce emerging technologies to enhance the provision of judicial services.

Such technologies include machine learning and digitalisation, as well as modern approaches such as agile methodogies in software development and design thinking,

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Necessity the mother of innovation

Buenos Aires faces a complex set of “wicked problems” with many interconnected factors, such as infrastructural issues, social tensions, and barriers to justice, and accounts for 40 per cent of all crimes committed in the country, Peña says.

This is why the Public Ministry adopts a whole-of-government approach to coordinate across the range of institutions, such as other ministries, municipalities, and local bodies, he explains.

But tight budgets means that public servants need to be creative when solving such problems – in this context, innovation is not just aspirational, but a necessity to moving forward.

MPBA 2050’s key priorities include making justice more accessible, efficient, and trusted by all. This means personalising justice services, and “deepening the adoption of people-centred justice,” he shares, echoing ideas of user-centred thinking in government today.

“Simply providing information is not enough. Citizens now expect public services to be more efficient, immediate, and personalised.”

Personalising justice services

“In this new context, the government is trying to leverage technologies like artificial intelligence to enhance citizen experience and improve service quality,” Peña says.

Personalised services can meet the demands of the community better, strengthening public trust, he explained.

In 2020, the Ministry surveyed over 20000 complainants and found that they were not aware of the progress of their complaints, their rights, and the existence of Victim Assistance Centre.

“We have to empower victims, boost judicial productivity, and ensure victims are treated with dignity and respect.”

This is why the Public Ministry developed a customer relationship management tool (CRM) to better support victims by sending automatic notices at critical moments, streamlining communications. Since then, they have been able to reach over two million people.

The Ministry has also conducted semi-structured interviews with public prosecution staff to better understand their motivations and inform the redesign of justice services, he explained.

Through the innovation programme, the Ministry has also driven other projects such as a chatbot which has seen over 1.7 million messages, the adoption of agile methodology across 350 judicial offices, and electronic complaint filing systems which save time and effort for citizens.

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Open governance model

To sustain innovation, the Public Ministry adopts an open governance model that encourages collaboration with other government bodies, courts, and the public.

“Innovation is about generating public value and the best way of achieving this goal is through an open governance model,” Peña explains.

Peña draws on the work of Henry Chesbrough, who coined the term open innovation and theorised that to solve complex problems, leaders need to draw on ideas coming from every single part of the system.

Prior to the innovation programme, many creative ideas never saw the light of the day due to a lack of collaboration and institutional support, he explains. With MPBA 2050, the Head of the Public Ministry can evaluate each idea, prioritise accordingly, and allocate resources to support its implementation.

“We try to combine technology and design to optimise services and support victims, defendants, and judicial agents,” he said.

Institutional programmes such as MPBA 2050 ensure that there are structures in place to achieve ambitious goals and earn the trust of team members, he explains. Today, this approach is being increasingly adopted in both local jurisdictions and across other ministries in the province.

“Our story highlights a journey of learning and connecting with citizens, showing that technology can enhance public trust.”