E‑Procurement Review of the Judicial Council of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires

Executive summary

Argentina is a federal republic composed of 23 provinces and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (CABA), and a member of the G20 forum of the world’s largest economies. Each province has its own constitution defining its powers and institutions. The judicial branch of the CABA is composed of the Superior Court of Justice, the Judicial Council (Consejo de la Magistratura, CM), the other courts established by law, and the Public Prosecutor. The CM competences include drafting the budget and administering the resources assigned to the judicial branch, selecting and proposing candidates for judges to the legislature, and receiving complaints. Procurement-related functions are assigned hierarchically with the Plenary in the strategic role, the Commission for Administration, Management, and Judicial Modernisation (Comisión de Administración, Gestión y Modernización Judicial) in a controlling role, and the Secretariat for General Administration and Budget (Secretaría de Administración General y Presupuesto, SAGyP) in the execution role.

SAGyP's General Directorate of Procurement and Contracting (Dirección General de Compras y Contrataciones, DGCC) receives and centralises the requirements of all courts, chambers, and prosecutor's offices and carries out their procurement through the JUC (Justicia Compra) system. The CM launched the adoption of JUC in 2021, after the approval of the technical co-operation agreement for the free cession of the license to use the e-procurement system of the executive branch BAC (Buenos Aires Compra). Tapping into this experience allowed a relatively rapid take-up of e-procurement in the CM.

Several CM initiatives created a favourable environment for digital transformation, including the implementation of the Electronic Administrative Procedures Management System (Sistema de Gestión de Trámites Administrativos Electrónicos, SISTAE) in 2018 and Pilagá, a financial, budgetary, and accounting administration system in 2021. This environment supported the digitisation of the CM's management, both in its interaction with citizens and in its internal processes, including public procurement. However, this favourable environment emerged from a series of initiatives over time, rather than as part of a single, integrated digital transformation strategy. The CM has also more recently experimented with the application of tools based on digital technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI).

JUC governance is based on a distribution of powers mainly within SAGyP but also including other CM areas, for example, those in charge of open government, digital policies, and control and internal audit. Engagement with external stakeholders (e.g. business, civil society, etc.) has been limited and informal.

The CM provides some training for procurement staff, including through the Judicial Training Centre and agreements with universities. Procurement staff also participate in an annual procurement congress organised by the CM. Beyond these initiatives, the CM currently does not have a comprehensive professionalisation policy for its procurement workforce.

The JUC system covers the tendering phase, but not pre-tendering and post-tendering. JUC’s integration with other CM systems, particularly SISTAE and Pilagá, would improve procurement planning and allow the collection of information necessary for evaluating how e-procurement contributes to achieving the CM's central objectives.

Sustainability, meaning the consideration of environmental, ethical, social, and economic criteria, is one of the guiding principles for CM public procurement activities. JUC could support sustainable public procurement by clearly communicating it as a priority to the supplier community and facilitating the analysis of which criteria to apply variety (environmental, social, and/or economic) according to the potential to achieve impact in each tender process, while also avoiding overloading procurement processes or creating confusion among officials.

The JUC system has taken important steps to improve transparency. Nevertheless, the procurement information currently published is limited, and the query functionalities in JUC are restricted. While publishing procurement data enhances transparency, their value to stakeholders depends on easy access. To facilitate access to procurement information, JUC could adopt open data standards.

Beyond evaluations conducted by the internal audit function to monitor the recommendations of its audit reports, no systemic procurement risk assessment is performed. This leaves JUC vulnerable to risks such as cyberattacks or operational failures.

Key recommendations

The CM is the pioneer among local judiciaries in Argentina in terms of implementing e-procurement. The following recommendations (and the action plan in the annex) aim to improve the governance of JUC to make it a more effective tool in the digital transformation of public procurement.

• Evidence suggests a digital transformation strategy can support coherence in the whole-of-government, avoiding a siloed approach. The CM could advance such coherence by developing a digital transformation strategy with a clear vision, aligned with its mission, to guarantee the efficient and effective delivery of justice services. Administrative functions in the CM are not "auxiliary" but central to its mission. In this context, procurement occupies a prominent place and should therefore be part of the strategy.

• Within the framework of this strategic plan, the CM could continue exploring the potential of emerging technologies, such as AI, by partnering with expert institutions, and piloting as appropriate.

• SAGyP could establish mechanisms for engaging a wide set of stakeholders (e.g. business associations and CSOs) in the continuous improvement of JUC. These may include observatories, working groups, user surveys and panels, and focus groups.

• SAGyP could launch initiatives to professionalise the staff involved in e-procurement and build digital skills starting by developing a competency matrix and designing a training curriculum.

• E-procurement platforms in OECD countries are aiming to cover not only the tendering phase, but also the pre- and post-tendering stages. Following this pattern, SAGyP could strive to gradually extend the JUC transactional functionalities to the pre-tendering and post-tendering stages, including functions such as publishing annual procurement plans, verifying budget availability, and completing contract modifications.

• OECD evidence suggests that the integration of e-procurement systems with other digital government platforms entails benefits for both contracting authorities and suppliers. The CM could complete the integration process of JUC with SISTAE and Pilagá. This integration would enable a complete view of the procurement cycle and facilitate communication with suppliers.

• The CM could leverage JUC to implement the sustainability principle, for example, to communicate it as a priority to the supplier community and allow adaptation, as well as to facilitate the analysis of which criteria to apply in each tender according to their potential impact in achieving strategic objectives.

• SAGyP could boost JUC’s potential to contribute to the transparency of procurement operations by installing the functionality to query the entire database of procurement processes according to various criteria, adopting open data standards, and implementing a strategy of focused transparency.

• E-procurement systems are subject to different risks such as cyberattacks and operational failures. SAGyP could lead the initiative to develop a procurement risk management strategy, including risks directly related to JUC’s operation.