Amman Palace of Justice introduces unified services complex for government procedures

AMMAN — The Government Services Complex, the “first of its kind” in the Kingdom, was launched on Saturday at the New Amman Palace of Justice by Minister of Justice Bassam Talhouni and USAID Mission Director Jim Barnhart.

The Government Services Complex houses services from 10 ministries, including the Drivers and Vehicle Licensing Department, the Department of Land and Survey and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Office of Certifications, among others.

“To bring 10 different government entities providing more than 80 services under one roof requires cooperation and rigour, which we have thankfully been able to achieve,” Talhouni said at the launch.

The minister noted that government applications that previously needed approval through three different procedures at entities scattered across Amman can now be processed in less than a day, as all these entities occupy booths next to each other at the complex. 

“This is one of a number of Ministry of Justice efforts to respond to His Majesty King Abdullah’s directions to modernise and simplify government processes to ensure that citizens have access to justice,” said Talhouni.

People engaged with the court system, both lawyers and the public, can now “easily access the documentation they need for their cases in one location”, stated a brochure for the complex which was distributed at the event.

It added that, to provide greater convenience for the public, the complex will operate outside normal working hours, six days a week from 8:30am until 9pm, except for Fridays. 

Over the last two years, the Ministry of Justice, in partnership with USAID, introduced 43 e-services, ranging from a service offering expert opinions to one providing case inquiries. 

As a result, traffic to the ministry’s web portal has gone up by more than triple the amount from 300,000 visits in 2016 to 940,000 in 2019.

“The Government Services Complex is illustrative of the long-standing cooperation between USAID and the justice sector in Jordan to provide legal services and strengthen responsive and transparent governance,” said Barnhart at the launch.

“For seven decades, the US has worked with the government of Jordan to strengthen economic growth, encourage democratic governance and support the Ministry of Justice in implementing important reforms,” he added.

Barnhart also noted that, over the past few years, USAID has helped the government of Jordan launch 60 e-services as well as assisted in improving the efficiency and responsiveness of the Amman Civil Execution Department, with customer satisfaction going up by nearly 60 per cent.

Similar upgrades are being made to the Civil Execution Departments in Aqaba, Zarqa, Jerash, Irbid and Madaba.  

The Government Services Complex is the latest manifestation of the “deep and long-standing cooperation” between the Kingdom and the US, according to Barnhart.