Ministry to digitise data, processes

DUE to people rorting the social welfare payment system, Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Lynda Tabuya says they are looking to digitise all data and processes as part of their five-year strategic plan.

She said this after several complaints were made to the ministry about people allegedly receiving social welfare assistance which they were not entitled to.

Ms Tabuya said the most recent report was that of families who were still receiving assistance after older persons in the respective families had passed away.

“This is something that we would like to include also in our strategic plan for this year and in the coming years and that is to digitise all our databases, which are currently being done manually which certainly of course is open to abuse when we do not have a central bank that contains all this data,” she said.

Ms Tabuya said the ministry was looking at ways to rectify the issue by digitising all the ministry’s data and processes with the help of FijiCare and the Pacific Community (SPC).

“I thank FijiCare for committing to providing monthly reports to the ministry of deceased persons that they have in their records and also partners like SPC.

“This will help us to then go through our own system to eliminate or to remove from the system.”

She said investigations were still ongoing and thanked members of the public who came forward to alert the ministry of loved ones who had passed on, but were still receiving social welfare allowances in their bank accounts.

Ms Tabuya added the ministry was going through a “review of all its processes”.

“We are also looking at how we are reviewing, how we are printing and processing the vouchers that go to families.

“So it’s right across the board that we are having a review of our IT system so that we can become more efficient and more effective.”