Speaking at a Governance and Administration Cluster briefing, the minister said not only did the system cut queues, it also helped detect corruption, managed performance of managers and helped citizens to check progress in the processing of the ID books.
The Track and Trace system was implemented at all Home Affairs offices across the country this week, after its progressive roll-out throughout the year.
People who have applied for South African IDs after 9 February this year are able to track how far their application is via sms.
"We're not saying the system is perfect but we do believe it will reduce the long queues at Home Affairs Departments ... and we're hoping that by the end of the year citizens will be able to report some form of satisfaction."
Speaking at the Pan African ICT in Government Summit in May, Chief Technology Officer for the State Information Technology Agency (SITA), Dr David Mashao, said South Africans could spend only R1 to check on their applications.
This can be done by sending an SMS with the letters ID, a space, then their ID number to 32551 at the cost of R1. "People used to travel long distances paying large amounts of money in some instances just to go check their documents.
Sometimes they don't even get those documents and are required to come back again which is another cost," said Dr Mashao.
He said this was part of the e-government systems that were put in place to ensure effective service delivery in the Department of Home Affairs.
Minister Mapisa-Nqakula said Tuesday, she believed the system would also have a positive effect on service delivery as every official who dealt with an application would be accountable for the work he or she had done.
The system would help improve the turn-around time for the finalisation of applications and delivery of IDs, she explained.
The project was one that sought to promote the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) by citizens and the public service, to deliver services more effectively and efficiently.
Public Service and Administration minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi said this fell under the e-government projects.
E-government is seen as an important factor in realising government's vision to deliver services in the most convenient manner.
Ms Fraser-Moleketi said terms of reference had also been developed for the Citizen Relations Portal (CRP) project.
The CRP aims to establish a service that allows citizens to make enquiries about the progress of service delivery affecting them.
It is planned initially to include the services of the Departments of Home Affairs and Social Development in the system.
Autor(en)/Author(s): Vivian Warby
Quelle/Source: AllAfrica, 29.08.2007
