RIYADH, 16 January 2007 — An official at the Ministry of Justice said yesterday that over 2.5 million documents related to court orders, criminal records and lawsuits are now being processed electronically.
“You can now go to any judge and a paper can be authorized in a matter of minutes,” said Salman Al-El Sheikh, general manager of the information technology department at the Ministry of Justice.
Speaking during his presentation at the National E-Transactions Conference taking place in the capital through Wednesday, Al-El Sheikh said that there is still a great need to enhance electronic security, and that many more materials cannot be recorded electronically due to potential security breaches. The official said there was still much to be done regarding increasing the awareness among public regarding electronic records.
An official working for the Presidency of the Council of Ministers said that paperwork in the presidency used to take up to 60 days to finish before it began introducing an e-transactions system.
“Eighty percent of the paperwork which used to take up to two months to finish is now done in eight days,” said Saud Al-Mogbil, general manager of information technology in the presidency.
The official said work began on implementing an electronic system three years ago. He said that officials were now able to detect where the circular had gone in the presidency and which department was handling it at the click of a button.
