OREANDA-NEWS. March 15, 2010. Azerbaijani Deputy Minister of Justice Togrul Musayev said that in order to   expand opportunities of  "Electronic information bank of notarial documents’’,  work should have been started for creation of single  electronic network for notary’s offices in 2009.

“As early as in 2009, work in this direction was finished with 30 offices. Presently, all notarial organisations of Azerbaijan are connected to single  network and now all conditions were created for transfer of daily information about a notary’s activity to system in an electronic form,” T. Musayev told.

Transition to the automated notarial system in Azerbaijan was carried out by the Ministry of Justice within the framework of the project with the World Bank (WB) “Modernization of judicial and legal system”. For this purpose, an Austrian consultant was chosen for preparation of action plan on management, office management, documentary and information registration and electronic management and document control for the Judicial-Legal Council, the Supreme and Constitutional Courts, judicial agencies, including creation of electronic notarial system.

The project budget is USD 35.6 million, including a USD 21.6 million loan of International Development Association (IDA) endorsed by the WBG Board of Directors on June 29, a USD 3 million grant of Japanese Special Poverty Reduction Fund and USD 11 million of Azerbaijani governmental stake.

The project is intended for further development of modern 3-stage court system, restructuring in the Justice Ministry, support of courts and Court Council, including development of examination system of judge selection, and assistance to renewal of the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code.

The project composes four main components:

- to strengthen management abilities of juridical institutions with creation of computerized management system, information network and training courses.

- to increase Court’s possibilities – construction and repairs of court buildings and to apply modern technology and computerization in management system.

- to strengthen judges’ professionalism through training courses and regular education.

- pilot civil informing programs to improve civil access to information about registration and notary offices.