2005 C.I.P.A. Winners

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Bureau des infractions et amendes, Ministère de la justice, Gouvernement du Québec

CyberCollection: An Integrated Business Solution

CyberCollection: An Integrated Business Solution

The Bureau des infractions et amendes (BIA), a division of the Department of Justice, Quebec Government, processes offence files related to 90 criminal and penal laws in Quebec and 17 federal criminal/penal laws. The BIA receives some 500,000 offence statements and reports a year and collects fines resulting from 175,000 judgments issued.

The BIA processes about $110 million in fines each year, with a 2004-2005 operating budget of $7.7 million and a capital budget of $3.7 million. It employs 178 people in 12 locations.

Challenge

Collection of fines used to be a serious problem at the justice department. Pending receivables were increasing by $25 million a year and write-off expenses by $2 million. Payment of fines required a certified cheque to be paid at the courts. Moreover, it was very difficult to obtain information on a file or to negotiate a payment agreement.

The justice department responded with a strategy that led to the creation of the BIA office in 2001.

Objectives

BIA sought to build a fine-collection system with these objectives:

For citizens:

• Facilitate access to services through the implementation of a single window;
• Establish general settlement agreements for several files regardless of location of offence.

For partners:

• Ensure data capture at source to eliminate risk of clerical errors that could prejudice citizens;
• Exchange or share data and documents with BIA in digital format in a totally secure environment;
• Ensure file tracking electronically.

For the department:

• Apply the law in a uniform and equitable manner using standard processes and tools;
• Reduce operating costs;
• Improve recovery rate of sums owed to the government.

Solution

BIA developed a sophisticated business solution called CyberCollection to modernize the collecting of fines in Quebec. This solution has strengthened the efficiency of the organization through the optimal deployment of information technologies.

With this single-window system, citizens can obtain, in one step, information on their files, make payments or negotiate general-settlement agreements. Online interactive voice and Internet services available at www.amendes.qc.ca enable citizens to access BIA services at any time.

Correspondence and related follow-up processes have been completely automated as well as all manual and repetitive activities. Collection officers work from electronic desktops where paper is eliminated. The transformation of business processes and work reorganization is so seamless that BIA's 12 points of service in Quebec operate as one office.

Results: Income in 2004 was up 19 per cent from 2001, and total 2001-2004 collection revenue of $298 million exceeded business-plan projections by $40 million. Meanwhile, expense write-offs dropped 46 per cent between 2001 and 2004, and pending receivables fell 19 per cent.

Paul André Alain, director general of the Bureau des infractions et amendes, says the CyberCollection system has produced "a better informed citizen with access from anywhere, and a collection officer well connected and supported by a self-directed and flexible technology."

Innovative Use of Technology

The CyberCollection solution is supported by a system known as SGIPA (Système de gestion des infractions et de perception des amendes or Penal Offence and Fine Collection/Payment Management System). It consists of an electronic service infrastructure enabling data exchange in digital format between the BIA and its prosecutors and partners, as well as the courts and the public in a secure virtual environment.

The system is integrated with Oracle Workflow, so 70 fine-collection processes consisting of more than 20 work stages are all automated. The workflow tool manages all of the 2,500 possible steps in file processing from opening to settlement. With this tool, BIA can monitor in real time the status of each of the 300,000 files that are typically active.

A 2005 CIPA Winner!

For its exceptional and innovative application of information technology to solve real-world business problems and bring greater benefit to all its stakeholders, the Bureau des infractions et amendes, Ministère de la justice, Gouvernement du Québec has been declared a Gold Best of Category Winner by the 2005 Canadian Information Productivity Awards in the Efficiency and Operational Improvements Not For Profit category.

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