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Home Affairs reduces queues electronically

April 13, 2011 12:41 pm 26 comments

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Following the success of the queue management system at the South African revenue services (SARS), the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) says it will also implement the system to help monitor the progress of service delivery at its branches.

“The Queue Management System will improve the client experience by reducing waiting times and ensuring that staff performance is closely monitored”, the DHA says.

SARS implemented the electronic system as it prepared for the 2010 tax return period and noted reduced queuing times. Finance minister Pravin Gordhan previously stated that queuing times had improved by 57%, while taxpayers visiting SARS branches had increased considerably over the 2010 tax season.

The DHA previously stated it would leverage the queue management system, as well as other SARS systems, to cut the costs of its major IT projects. Home Affairs has now piloted the system in 13 other offices around the country and will now be implemented at the offices the department has refurbished in its bid to ensure quicker response time to clients.

The queue-management system will assist the Department monitor how many people are served on a daily basis while keeping accurate statistics of how long these clients had to wait to be served.

“This will go a long way towards assisting us to improve our services since the data we will be compiling will be accurate and measurable,” the department said.

Smart ID on the roll

Speaking during her budget presentation to Parliament yesterday, Home Affairs minister, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma noted that the department would now focus on overhauling its IT systems as the Who Am I Online issue had now been resolved.

“Now that the Who Am I Online (WAIO) contract issues have been resolved we will, as part of our programme of action for this financial year, roll out the live capture for IDs and passports. Last year we committed to piloting the smart card.In this regard, we are pleased to inform this House that this has been done,” Dlamini-Zuma stated.

She added that the Government Printing Works (GPW) has produced the Crew Member Certificate which is used internationally our pilots and crew members – adding that the certificate had laid a foundation for piloting the ID smart card in this financial year with a roll out planned for the 2012/13 financial year.

According to the minister, IT changes would greatly enhance efficiency, security and service delivery as well as the development and implementation of an integrated system of both the Immigration and Civic services.

A complete overhaul of the National Population Register will also be carried out in collaboration with SARS, the GPW and the Department of Finance.

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  • Some Person

    Wow,its about time, for too long have we waited on a queue and receiving negative results, I hope the new Projects wont have errors like the past.

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