Prosecutor General Abbas Shareef has said that, alongside PGO 2.0, the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) will become an office where prosecution work is digitised to the highest level permitted by law by 2028.
Speaking at the launch ceremony of the PGO 2.0 project, Prosecutor General Abbas highlighted the improvements that the project will bring to the services and operations of the Prosecutor General’s Office.
Prosecutor General Abbas said all employees of the office would receive the mobile devices required for their work within the first 100 days of the PGO 2.0 project. There are currently 199 employees at the office, of whom 149 have not been provided with mobile devices for work, the PG said. However, once these employees are provided with devices, they will be able to work from anywhere and carry out work outside office hours without having to travel to the office, he said.
The PG noted that, although there are 60 critical systems, none of them currently have backups stored outside the office. Under the project, however, backups will be taken outside the office and stored in a secure server system within the first 100 days. He also said that although paper is still being used to submit cases to courts in the islands, this too will change under the project.
The PG said major changes would be introduced by the time the project is completed in 2028. In particular, he noted that by 2028, the Prosecutor General’s Office would be an office where prosecution work is digitised to the highest level permitted by law. He also said the office would be able to submit cases to court at a rate 60 per cent higher than at present.
“Time spent in the office will decrease significantly. For example, when 25 files are sent by the ACC, it currently takes two or three months to review them. With AI, the review work could be completed within a day. A considerable amount of time across the whole system can be saved. This is not work intended to reduce the power of human beings. AI will assist prosecutors. The prosecutors will make the decisions,” Prosecutor General Ustaz Abbas Shareef said.
The PG stressed that AI cannot be used without a strong security system and said governance tools had been developed over the past five months. He said these principles and measures had been prepared in accordance with international principles established by various United Nations agencies.
The PG also noted that standards had been established for the use of AI by the Prosecutor General’s Office. He said every document would be reviewed once a year. According to the PG, a case would only proceed with AI after at least 15 risk checks had been carried out.
The PG said AI would not be used to make decisions on whether to prosecute or to conduct prosecutions. He noted that, by the time the project is completed, every prosecutor would have an AI assistant.
In his remarks, the PG also said that the services provided to a person would not differ based on where that person is located. He further said that, by the time the project is completed, all guidance would be available in Dhivehi and people would always have the option of accessing services using non-digital means.