The Legal Register Centre’s year 2022: increasing role within its administrative branch, in society and in Europe
The Legal Register Centre has published its financial statements for 2022, including the annual report, financial statements and notes to the financial statements. The year saw strong development in the Centre’s services and operations.
The Legal Register Centre’s (ORK) vision is to be an agile digital partner to the judicial administration and a trusted expert in corporate data. In line with this vision, the Centre focused on updating its capabilities and capacity for promoting the digitalisation of the Ministry of Justice’s administrative branch as well as meeting the increasing expectations towards the exercise of public authority.
The Project Management Office (PMO) established by ORK in 2021 developed in leaps and bounds in 2022, promoting the progress for projects and the management of the administrative branch’s IT portfolio. The RATSU solution design service built client-specific digital plans for the next four years in cooperation with its client agencies in the administrative branch. The administrative branch’s joint data architecture also saw strong development in a dedicated project.
”We took great steps in the active identification of ICT development targets within the administrative branch and their refinement into projects. The number of ICT projects grew considerably, and will continue to do so in 2023”, says Director General of the ORK, Jussi Kivinen.
Several important projects within the administrative branch were advanced, and some of them even completed, in 2022. These included: the Election Information System, ECRIS-TCN, Interoperability (IO), Hilda, KOSTI, access rights management, ROTI and certain individual robotics projects.
“The first county elections held in early 2022 were highly successful as a process. The election support and Election Information System provided by ORK were in top form, contributing to the implementation of democracy”, Kivinen says.
The replacement of ORK’s own key implementation system for the exercise of public authority, RAJSA, with the new TAPSA system was also launched. Implementation processes and legislation are being updated in pace with the progress of the project.
”As a rule, we reached our performance targets agreed with the Ministry of Justice for 2022. But the most important thing is that our digital services are functioning as expected and we are helping our various clients perform their daily duties”, the Director General concludes.
Increasing national and international impact
ORK took ambitious steps to increase its impact on the national and EU levels. A report on the administration of justice completed in 2022 named ORK as a vital component in the national chain of justice administration.
”Our roles in the chain include the national implementation of sanctions, providing support at all stages of the administration of justice by providing register data, and the potential renewal of the entire chain in our role as IT developer”, Kivinen says.
International information exchange, European processes for the administration of justice and common information systems reinforce ORK’s position as an expert in corporate data, also beyond the borders of Finland. Digital security management is boosted by the new Security Services unit established in ORK in 2022.
The expectations and appreciation for the Legal Register Centre, as well as its duties, are growing.
”We also took a more central role in the area of administrative fines. Centralising the enforcement of penal administrative fines in ORK creates significant benefits and efficiencies in the operations of both central-government and municipal authorities”, Kivinen says.
Our own people are expecting more communality, face-to-face interaction and the practical implementation of work processes after a period of remote work. We launched a competence development model for our personnel in 2022 and its implementation is ongoing.
”The year 2022 gave us a solid foundation for ORK’s future services and opportunities”, says Jussi Kivinen, summing up the year.
The Legal Register Centre, or ORK, serves as the controller for the key registers of the Ministry of Justice’s administrative branch and enforcer of financial sanctions. We at ORK are also responsible for the development and maintenance of the judicial administration’s information systems and function as the central IT procurement unit for the administrative branch.
We are a part of the process for the administration of justice. Our community consists of roughly 200 experts. Our agency has an office in Hämeenlinna, and our operations have both national and global impact.