During the Sandinista administration (1978-1990) in Nicaragua, land and other property (factories, equipment, vehicles) were nationalized following the Agrarian Reform Law in 1981. The lands were often handed over to cooperative farming groups and families. When a new political era began in 1990 with the election of the Western Hemisphere’s first female president, Violeta Chamorro, a process of restoring taken lands through government bonds or physical property began. The initial phase of this process involved sifting manually through physical copies of property records, legal deeds to land, and other items in the property registry archives in order to determine the value of property so that compensation could take place. This task was particularly difficult since the system of records was outdated and in locations throughout the country.
As part of a USAID program, Alexius worked with the government of Nicaragua to digitize property records and other documents to modernize and automate the process of compensation for lands that had been nationalized. By introducing technology as a key component of the process, the Nicaraguan property agency was able to better serve the affected parties more transparently and effectively by drastically shortening the time it took to analyze a case and determine the status of a particular property. Also, the entire process could now be tracked, so there was a greater level of direct accountability by public officials.
Performing an analysis of the administrative legal procedure, specifically studying the workflow and legal components, Alexius implemented the first web based tracking system that could scan and digitize the physical information in Nicaragua. As a result of this project, an inquiry into the current state of a particular property went from weeks to minutes. Furthermore, having digitized the system entirely, future projects involving property rights and ownership can be enhanced by the work performed.
