For discussion FCR(96-97)40
on 12 July 1996

ITEM FOR FINANCE COMMITTEE

CAPITAL WORKS RESERVE FUND
HEAD 710 - COMPUTERISATION
Judiciary
New Subhead “Re-development of Case and Summons Management System for Magistracies”

Members are invited to approve the creation of a commitment of $35,870,000 for the re-development of Case and Summons Management System for Magistracies.

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PROBLEM
PROPOSAL
JUSTIFICATION

Benefits
Cost-Benefit Analysis

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The Greater use of Chinese

List of Prosecution Agencies
Cost-benefit analysis of the proposed new CASEMAN System (at 1996-97 prices)

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PROBLEM

The Judiciary needs a new computer system to support the greater use of Chinese at magistracies, and also to facilitate the electronic interchange of bilingual documents between magistracies and 35 prosecution agencies in various Government departments and non-Government organisations. A full list of the prosecution agencies is at Enclosure 1.

PROPOSAL

2. The Judiciary Administrator (JA), with the support of the Director of Information Technology Services (DITS), proposes to re-develop the existing Case and Summons Management System (CASEMAN) for magistracies and provide the new system with bilingual support capability.

JUSTIFICATION

3. We implemented the existing CASEMAN system in July 1992 to computerise the processing of charge cases, summonses and notices for magistracies. In 1995, the system processed 156 000 charge cases and 433 000 summonses/notices. However, the system provides only limited support for the use of Chinese in court documents. For example, while the system provides Chinese translations automatically for standard texts, such as offence description on the summons, other details of the offence appear in English only. This is no longer adequate in meeting the requirements of bilingual court operations, which dictate that all information must be capable of being entered and produced on court documents in either Chinese or English, or both.

4. The new CASEMAN system will ensure the production of bilingual court documents without the need for substantial increase in staff efforts. To achieve this, we will adopt the following approach -

1. we will revise the existing standard offence descriptions, information on summonses and other court documents to enable the greater use of standardised texts/phrases;
2. we will set up comprehensive code tables for these standard texts/phrases in both Chinese and English. We will use codes instead of lengthy texts when entering data to minimise the staff effort required. New software technology and more powerful workstations will also render the search for appropriate codes a faster and easier task for the users;
3. we will employ new technology, such as the ‘Chinese writing pen’, so that the inputting of Chinese will be a much easier task for clerical staff; and
4. we only need to enter the same data once, for example, at the time of preparing summonses, and the system will generate all related documents, such as letters and notices automatically.

5. The new CASEMAN will be capable of interfacing more efficiently with the computer systems at prosecution agencies, enabling an interchange of information in both English and Chinese. This is important in the light of increasing computerisation at the prosecution agencies. A typical example of new systems being developed is the Formation Information Communal System (FICS) of the Police. The new CASEMAN will enable the electronic transfer of charge case information, in both Chinese and English, by the Police from FICS to CASEMAN. In return CASEMAN will be able to transfer the hearing schedules and case results electronically to FICS, thus eliminating duplication of effort in data entry by Judiciary staff and the Police.

6. In addition, the re-developed CASEMAN system will improve the operational efficiency of magistracies in the following areas -

1. the system will streamline and automate payment procedures at the accounts offices. It will provide a more efficient service to the public in respect of the handling of payments of fines, bails and outstanding payments enquiries;
2. the system will keep track of the status of the summonses that the bailiffs have to serve in person, and alert the prosecution agencies and magistracies of any service failures that might affect hearings;
3. the system will keep track of all requests for free-lance interpreter services raised by the prosecution agencies and magistracies, and monitor the availability of these services;
4. the system will introduce new bar-coding to facilitate the tracking of documents and files at magistracies; and
5. a sub-system will provide more comprehensive case and management information to assist the Judiciary in operational planning for magistracies.

7. The redeveloped system will provide the following improvements in services to the public -

1. summonses, daily cause lists, letters, warrants and other court documents will be fully bilingual, more user friendly, and more easily understandable for the general public; and
2. the system will simplify payment procedures at the accounts offices. In handling special payment arrangements such as payment by instalments and bulk payment of outstanding fines, the system will replace the existing tedious manual procedures.

8. Improvements in services to the prosecution agencies will include -

1. installation of new CASEMAN workstations at 11 major prosecution departments and the Central Summons Processing Unit of the Judiciary to facilitate the preparation of bilingual summonses; and
2. introduction of a new case/summons status tracking system to facilitate the monitoring of the readiness of cases for hearing. The system will automatically alert prosecution agencies of any failure of summons service or unavailability of interpreters that might affect hearings.

9. The new CASEMAN system will integrate with Judiciary’s other information systems and also the Digital Audio Recording and Transcription System (DARTS) for information interchange and sharing of facilities. It will transfer details of the cases to the District Court or committal to the High Court automatically. The new communication network that connects the ten magistracies will be a common facility shared by other information systems in the Judiciary.

Benefits

10. Implementation of the proposed new system will avoid the need to create an additional 59 departmental/clerical grades posts in the Judiciary and the various government departments to support the production of bilingual documents. We estimate that cost avoidance at$20,045,000 in staff costs per annum.

11. Improvements in operational efficiency at magistracies will not require any increase in the number of supporting staff. In fact the automation of inputting of charge sheet information and the preparation of letters, warrants, memoranda, reports, etc will lead to fragmented staff savings, albeit notional, equivalent to 3.2 posts or $766,000 in staff costs in the magistracies.

Cost-Benefit Analysis

12. A cost-benefit analysis is at Enclosure 2. Taking into account the cost avoidance arising from the elimination of the need to create 59 additional posts to support bilingual court operations, the break-even point for the investment will take place in the third year after implementation.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

13. The total non-recurrent cost for implementing the new CASEMAN system is $38,948,000. The breakdown of the costs are as follows -

14. As regards paragraph 13(a) above, the expenditure of $14,453,000 is for the acquisition of computer hardware and system software.

15. As regards paragraph 13(b) above, the expenditure of $2,677,000 is for the establishment of a communication network that inter-connects the ten magistracies with the Police and major prosecution agencies.

16. As regards paragraph 13(c) above, the expenditure of $3,737,000 is for site preparation works at the magistracies, including the installation of additional power supplies and conduits for the computer network.

17. As regards paragraph 13(d) above, the expenditure of $11,162,000 is for the contract services to undertake system re-development and migration.

18. As regards paragraph 13(e) above, the expenditure of $580,000 is for the provision of training in Chinese input to the users, and the acquisition of consumables and miscellaneous items during implementation.

19. As regards paragraph 13(f) above, the expenditure of $3,261,000 represents a 10% contingency in respect of the items from (a) to (e).

20. As regards paragraph 13(g) above, the expenditure of $3,078,000 represents the Judiciary staff costs for assisting with the implementation of the new system. This includes 14 man-months of Chief Judicial Clerk, 14 man-months of Senior Judicial Clerk I, 14 man-months of Senior Judicial Clerk II, and 2.9 man-months of Clerical Assistant effort. The proposed team will be responsible for the re-design of the standard offence descriptions and court documents, preparation of new user procedures, and training of the end users.

21. The recurrent expenditure estimates are as follows -

22. As regards paragraph 21(a) above, the expenditure of $1,927,000 is for the annual maintenance service charges for the computer hardware and system software for 1998-2002. The existing computer bulk contract allows a special discount for the maintenance service charges of some equipment for the first four years. There will be an increase of $1,340,000 in the maintenance costs from 2002-03 onwards.

23. As regards paragraph 21(b), the expenditure of $653,000 is for the maintenance service of the communication network equipment and for the rental of communication lines.

24. As regards paragraph 21(c), the expenditure of $672,000 is for contract services to supplement ITSD’s existing on-going system support and maintenance.

25. As regards paragraph 21(d), the expenditure of $251,000 is for the provision of consumable items, such as toner and paper for the printer and tapes and diskettes for backup purposes.

26. As regards paragraph 21(e), the saving of $2,620,000 arises because maintenance service charges and communication line rentals for the existing system shall be phased out.

IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

27. The JA and the DITS plan to implement the proposed new CASEMAN system according to the following timetable -

28. We will implement all the day-to-day operations of the magistracies/agencies with complete cut-over from the existing system to the new CASEMAN system in July 1997. We will implement the new management information sub-system by December 1997.

29. As regards the existing system which will become surplus upon redevelopment of CASEMAN, we intend to redeploy the workstations and printers to meet the needs of other users within the Judiciary and the prosecution departments. The Director of Government Supplies will assist in the redeployment of any remaining surplus items to meet the needs of other government departments.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The Greater use of Chinese

30. While Cantonese has been used in Magistracies and Tribunals for many years, English had been the language of the Court above the magistracy level before the introduction of the Official Languages (Amendment) Ordinance in July 1995.

31. In July 1994 the Chief Justice appointed a Steering Committee to implement a wider use of the Chinese language in Courts. In January 1995, the Chief Justice endorsed the recommendations of the Steering Committee of a phased implementation strategy. In accordance with the strategy, we lifted the restriction on the use of Chinese in the District Court in early 1996. We expect that we will further lift the restriction for High Court criminal cases in January 1997, High Court civil cases in March 1997 and finally the Court of Appeal in June 1997.

32. The Judiciary has to put in place a framework which enables it to use Chinese and English in all judicial proceedings in Hong Kong before July 1997. CASEMAN redevelopment is part of the Judiciary’s efforts to facilitate the greater use of Chinese in courts.

Judiciary
July 1996

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Enclosure 1 to FCR(96-97)40

List of Prosecution Agencies

Agriculture & Fisheries Department

Buildings Department

Companies Registry

Customs & Excise Department

Department of Health

Electrical & Mechanical Services Department

Environmental Protection Department

Fire Services Department

Home Affairs Department

Housing Department

Independent Commission Against Corruption

Immigration Department

Inland Revenue Department

Labour Department

Lands Department

Marine Department

Office of the Telecommunications Authority

Official Receiver’s Office

Planning Department

Post Office

Rating & Valuation Department

Regional Services Department

Royal Hong Kong Police Force

Social Welfare Department

Television & Entertainment Licensing Authority

Transport Department

Urban Services Department

Water Supplies Department

Kowloon Canton Railway Corporation - Heavy Rail

Kowloon Canton Railways Corporation - Light Rail

Mass Transit Railway Corporation

New Hong Kong Tunnel Co. Ltd.

Securities and Futures Commission

The Cross Harbour Tunnel Co. Ltd

Tate’s Cairn Tunnel Co. Ltd

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Enclosure 2 to FCR(96-97)40

Cost-benefit analysis of the proposed new CASEMAN System (at 1996-97 prices)