Since its inception, the National Bureau has been a driver of innovation in Ukraine's criminal justice system. The digitization of the criminal process was one of its initiatives.

It envisaged a transition from piles of papers to digital format in criminal proceedings, aimed at enhancing investigation efficiency, expediting the work of anti-corruption agencies, and saving resources.

In 2019, with the technical, expert, and financial support of the European Union Anti-Corruption Initiative in Ukraine, the National Bureau started developing the electronic pre-trial investigation system eCase.

It was intended to store thousands of pages of case files in electronic format, offer templates of procedural documents, and the ability to automatically generate them and keep them available for all process participants.

The full launch of eCase took place on Dec. 16, 2021. On this day, National Bureau detectives and prosecutors from the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office registered the first criminal case in the system. This was enabled with the approval of the system's functioning procedure: the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, the Council of Judges of Ukraine, and the Office of the Prosecutor General signed the relevant order on Dec. 15, 2021. This was preceded by the amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine, including the addition of Article 106-1.

The past year was marked by two important events. In April 2023, the integration of the system with the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations took place. The next step was the integration of eCase with the "D-3" judicial system. Starting from Dec. 1, 2023, National Bureau detectives and prosecutors could electronically file motions for searches with the court. This significantly accelerated the transmission of documents to investigative judges, saving valuable time for detectives and prosecutors and reducing fuel and paper costs.

As of the end of 2023, eCase had already had over 500 registered criminal cases. There were 40 templates of procedural documents available. The project team, which includes experts from the National Bureau, the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, and the investigating judges, is constantly working on improving the system and implementing new procedural documents.

• increasing the number of procedural document templates to 80, which will cover over 90% of the investigator's and prosecutor's office work;
• expanding the list of motions that can be filed with the court in electronic form;
• providing the defense with access to criminal investigation materials through the eCase interface;
• developing technical specifications and implementing changes to improve the system's functionality and reliability;
• conducting educational and training events with representatives of the criminal justice system on the specifics of electronic criminal proceedings.