Brasilia, the Washington DC of Brazil, is coming out with a new slogan for the country as part of a rebranding for the 21st century.
“Brazil, using the best technology moderately well.”
Ok, it’s not an official slogan. Just an accurate one. Brazil is rapidly becoming a global player with steady economic growth and the world’s fifth largest population, but the country still has serious development challenges ahead of it. Fortunately, politicians love nothing more than shiny, new, development projects.
The goals behind Brasilia’s plans (improve efficiency, access, or capacity) are worthwhile. The problem with many of the government’s projects is deadlines. The haste with which many improvements are put into place results in half-assed solutions.
My last post was about the disaster that is the new college admissions exam. The ENEM is an excellent example of a good idea hastily and poorly implemented. Another example is the Federal Judiciary’s “Processo Virtual.”
The Federal Judiciary is on it’s way to being a paperless institution. All records, procedures, decisions will be virtual. Anyone who has ever been asked to provide three certified copies of their 8th grade report card (which in Brazil is everyone) will applaud any effort to reduce paperwork in Brazil.
How can Brasilia ruin such a good idea? Assign a deadline giving all first instance courts of the Federal Judiciary less than two years to make the transition.
In order to meet the deadline, courts quickly adapted previously-made software to use for cataloguing cases. Because the software was not designed for the courts there have been constant problems inputing records. Adding to the confusion, different regions are using different software. While lawyers have the option of filing petitions online, they are not required to. Cases submitted on paper are than scanned by the court staff.
The records of the Federal Judiciary did not warrant the creation of specific software? Maybe no one told Brasilia that nowadays people create new software daily. While not as exciting as launching angry birds with a slingshot, judicial record keeping certainly deserves it’s own app. Maybe that Facebook guy would do some pro bono work as part of his image rehabilitation.
The Federal Judiciary is trying to improve and move into the future. Admirable goals but rushing the process will only cause problems that have to be fixed later. I know politicians think in terms of election cycles but when it comes to development long term thinking is crucial.
Note to Brasilia: Replacing an outdated system with a flawed one is not progress.
