The Smart ID Card A case study profiling the South African Department of Home Affairs Roll-out of the Smart ID Cards

Transcription

1 The Smart ID Card A case study profiling the South African Department of Home Affairs Roll-out of the Smart ID Cards Leighanne Naicker Department of Trade and Industry, South Africa 3.4 Case Study Solving Everyday Problems 14.00, August 20 Hall 7, PICC 1

2 Contents 1. Department of Home Affairs: Background 2. The Turnaround Strategy 3. The DHA Modernisation Project 4. The Smart ID Card: The Strategy 5. Innovation through Public Private Partnership (PPP) collaboration 6. Conclusion 2

3 Department of Home Affairs: Background Civic Services Maintaining the National Population Register (NPR) Managing the birth, marriage and death records Determining and granting citizenship Issuing travel documents and passports Issuing identity documents (ID) Immigration Administering admissions into the country Determining the residency status of foreigners and issuing permits thereof Custodianship of refugee affairs Inspectorate Policy directives Source: 3

4 Department of Home Affairs: Background The Legacy of Inadequacy Due to insufficient resources, the DHA was unable to fulfil its dual mandate of civic services and immigration regulation. High vacancy rate of 19.2% translated into lack of a full staff complement which resulted in massive backlogs eg. it took an average of 127 days to get an ID with some customers waiting as long as 250 days. Lack of operational infrastructure such as computers and document management systems which compromised the integrity of citizen records. DHA did not embody any characteristics of an institution that valued organisational performance excellence thereby negatively impacting on staff morale and attitude. 4

5 The Turnaround Strategy Set of strategic initiatives that were funded by a three-year grant from National Treasury. The broad Turnaround Strategy sought to address burning service delivery issues while transforming the DHA s business processes and implementing a new service delivery and organisational model. 1. The used coaching and mentoring and training provision to revive staff morale and facilitate a necessary mindset change; 2. Addressed the leadership and skills vaccuum by prioritising the filling of senior management vacancies with the right people in the right positions. The senior management cadre was thereby able to advance The Turnaround Strategy by providing the necessary leadership and guidance to staff; 5

6 The Turnaround Strategy 3. DHA produced a pocket handbook entitled The Office Manager, one of the first of its kind for the public service, concrete standardised lists of what officials are supposed to do for frontline offices. The Office Manager included techniques such as training frontline staff to become more customer-oriented and embodying the Batho Pele principles. Attention to basic administrative tasks such as minute taking and record keeping was emphasised. 6

7 The DHA Modernisation Project Following the success of The Turnaround Strategy, The DHA Modernisation Project was born out of the need to harmonise the Department s business processes to efficiently and effectively respond to the country s residents needs. The Modernisation Project is underpinned by the following 5 business pillars: a single view of the Department s clients, data integrity, securing the country s borders, improving client experience and becoming a client oriented and patriotic workforce. 7

8 The DHA Modernisation Project The aim of Modernisation programme was to automate all business processes, involving capturing of information, images, supporting documents and standardized and controlled business processes which would create a more professional, efficient and effective service environment. The Project would bring about improved services and reduction of fraudulent activities and with the advent of the electronic age, the department aims to utilize technology to bring government and services to the people wherever they happen to live. 8

9 The Smart ID Card Central to this paper is the discussion of the intent of The DHA Modernisation Project to deliver the Smart ID Card, which would see the replacement of the Green Barcoded ID Book. 9

10 The Smart ID Card The Smart ID Card is a first of its kind in South Africa (SA) and is a unique contactless card which has an embedded microchip with biometric security features and houses the necessary biometric data unique to every individual. The information on the chip is laser engraved to prevent tampering and aims to cut down on the fraudulent use of fake or stolen IDs. The contactless card also has partitions that can later be utilised by other Government entities to store citizen related information. 10

11 Innovation through Public Private Partnership (PPP) collaboration The DHA realised that in order to accelerate its footprint and its service delivery reach. The Department decided to collaborate with leading SA banks to assist with the Smart ID roll-out - this is amongst the first successful Public Private Partnership (PPP) collaborations of its kind in SA. By making the Smart IDs available at the banks, it provides for an alternative channel to serve clients, an expansion of the DHA s footprint and minimises queues at front-line offices. 11

12 Innovation through Public Private Partnership (PPP) collaboration Due to the fact that the DHA does not have a national centre for processing information and applications, there was a need to expand DHA s footprint. Due to their extensive footprint, the banks were chosen as a partner for the roll-out. The DHA recognised the potential of the partnership as being able to foster such professional values as efficiency, teamwork and innovation. Public-private partnerships are business relationships between a private-sector company and a government agency for the purpose of completing a project that will serve the public. 12

13 Innovation through Public Private Partnership (PPP) collaboration Benefits of the partnership include: Accelerated rollout for Smart ID Cards in a cost efficient manner Wider service access points for citizens Convenience for clients. The objectives for the partnership include: Creating leverage by utilizing available office space in banks Reducing queues in DHA offices by diverting some of the clients to the new sites Reducing the timeline of replacement of Green Bar Coded Identity Books Eliminating the dual means of identification in the shortest possible time. 13

14 Conclusion Delving deeper into the operations and the rationale for the DHA making such radical changes in their administration, resulting in innovation and exceling in service delivery, makes one thing abundantly clear innovation in the public service is here to stay and it must by all means be nurtured. Employees need to be equipped with the tools and techniques of creative thinking. This can be achieved by maintaining a diversity of staff, paying attention to the needs and expectations of users and frontline staff, promoting formal creativity techniques and creating a culture of well-judged risk taking and experimentation (Mulgan and Albury, 2003). 14

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