Six institutions sign memorandum to connect databases under LERMS

Six domestic institutions signed a cooperation memorandum to create a single, secure platform for exchanging data and tracking cases across the criminal-justice process under the LERMS project, which is financed by the European Union.

The agreement links the Public Prosecutor's Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Customs Administration, the Financial Police, the Financial Intelligence Unit and the Agency for Management of Seized Assets. The platform will enable automated, sustained data sharing, statistical and analytical reporting, and monitoring of proceedings from preliminary inquiries through prosecutions, trials and asset forfeiture procedures.

Prosecutors and investigators will be able to follow cases step by step

Automated case tracking and secure exchange

The LERMS system is designed to record procedures from initial reports and pre-investigative acts, through prosecutorial and judicial phases, to financial investigations and confiscation processes, aiming to improve coordination and institutional accountability.

Nenad Saveski, the State Public Prosecutor, said the project responds to the speed and transnational nature of modern crime and underlined the need for timely, quality information. "Statistical data, in turn, should allow us at any moment to have a detailed overview of crime trends so that we can intercept them in time and successfully. Crime knows no borders, and criminal structures operate quickly and use the most advanced technologies. Therefore, our response must not be slow, isolated and stuck in bureaucratic labyrinths. The world is changing, and with it the way judicial, police and state bodies cooperate must also change," Saveski said.

Slobodan Ivanovski, director of the Financial Police, called digitalisation essential for strengthening investigative capacity and explained that better networking will shorten procedures and improve efficiency: "When we file a criminal complaint and the prosecution either brings an indictment or dismisses the complaint, we do not have enough information about the stage of the process, whether there is a trial, or whether the complaint has been dismissed, and this is a significant step forward in our information and in following our criminal reports. It is also good that we are networking with other institutions and sharing information and data that we need; this shortens time, and improves the efficiency and economy of our procedure. We must, as institutions, prepare for a new time, a new era of digitalisation where 'paperwork' will be reduced to a minimum," Ivanovski said.

Asked about expected effects on court practice, Ivanovski added: "I hope this will accelerate and improve the efficiency of the judiciary because I have said previously and will say again, if we do not have final court judgments it turns out that we work in vain and invest effort and energy in vain. Our goal is that every one of our reports ends with a final court judgment."

Representing the European Union delegation, Roberta Cortese praised the partnership and stressed that stronger institutions and closer cooperation are essential for rule-of-law reform and for producing measurable, comparable results. "Stronger institutions, closer cooperation between institutions and concrete progress in the area of the rule of law. In the accession process of North Macedonia and other candidate countries, the rule of law is a fundamental priority. Progress in the fight against organised crime and corruption is assessed not only through legislation and strategies, but above all through implementation and a sustainable record of results," Cortese said.

Cortese warned that long-term value will depend on regular use of the system, ongoing investment in the people who operate it and the political will of institutions to use its information to guide reforms and deliver measurable outcomes.

Photo: press material from the event