Justice Minister: ACMIS inspection in three court reveal numerous irregularities

The inspection into the functioning of Automated Case Management Information System (ACMIS) in three courts for 2016 and 2017 has revealed a great number of irregularities, Justice Minister Bilen Saljii told a press conference on Friday.

The inspection in the Skopje Basic Court 1, Appellate and Supreme Court, conducted in October and November, looked into the procedures for the ACMIS functioning, excluding of judges from the automated filing of a case and assignment of a judge, and all decisions on manual case management, Saljii said.

The inspection group registered irregularities in the application of the law on case tracking system in the courts and the ACMIS usage at the Skopje Basic and Supreme Courts. The law has been respected in the Appellate Court, which also refers to the ACMIS usage, except for the court’s administration.

According to the Commission’s findings at the Basic Court, there was an annual plan for case allocation only for 2013. The annual plans for the court’s work in 2016 and 2017 were a subject of frequent amendments, namely in two years they were altered for 10 times. The module for automatic case allocation wasn’t used, but the process was conducted manually. The cases were allocated only upon the court president’s signature and phone consultations with the court’s archive.

The inspection also determined that 860 cases were not allocated to judges, which challenges the accuracy of the Basic Court’s monthly and annual reports, submitted to higher courts, the Judicial Council and the Ministry of Justice, Saljii said.

The report on the inspection is aimed at eliminating all acts of misconduct, establishing professionalism in the courts and restoring the dignity, credibility of judicial institutions in Macedonia, the Justice Minister said, pointing out that the document would be distributed to all relevant institutions.

The Justice Ministry established a commission to inspect the ACMIS functioning in Macedonian courts following the recommendations of the senior experts’ group, led by Reinhard Priebe, over possible abuse of the system.