Drivers licence renewals are to go online by month-end, Minister of Innovation, Science and Smart Technology Senator Kay McConney has announced.
The move is the latest in the ministry’s national digitisation project which is aimed at easing the length of time it now takes to do business with Government agencies.
As she updated fellow lawmakers on the project, Senator McConney said: “I am hoping that many of you will be smiling by the end of June where you will be able to pay for the renewal of your driver’s licences online.”
The minister also revealed that the electronic documents and records management system, to be used by the entire government system, is to go live in two weeks as part of a phased implementation.
She said: “Senator Boyce spoke about the fact that we have to do things in phases because we cannot digitise everything all at once. Instead of speaking about all the other work we are doing, including Immigration where we are digitising over 200,000 records, again looking to make it easy for you to do business with the Immigration Department.
“We are also working on an electronic documents and records management system for the entire public service. We now have the test site up and we have persons working in this new testing environment. We expect in the first of those ministries we will go live in two weeks and then we will go from one ministry to the next, to the next.”
Senator McConney said that while much progress has been made across the agencies identified for digitisation, she is cautioning Barbadians that the process can be tedious given the size of departments that have to be digitised.
She said: “I want the country to manage your expectations because when you are doing massive digitisations you have to build on a firm, strong foundation before you start doing the work. I want us to understand that sometimes you have to go slowly at first so you can go faster later on.”
In her report on the status of the e-government drive, Senator McConney continued: “Some effort and some advancement have been made particularly working with the Police and the Certificate of Character that impacts over 26,000 people every year. That has now been digitised from start to finish. It is completed.
“We have digitised over 66,000 of those records which were in a state where some of them had the edges broken off and they were dusty. Somehow we were able to do that and the Police Department is now keeping those records up to date.
“We have not only done the back records but we are keeping them up to date going forward. That was one of the commitments.
“At the [Supreme Court] Registry as it relates to birth, marriage and death certificates, we are in the process, about 37 per cent through of starting to digitise over 93,000 of those records right now. We are working again with a local company right here in Barbados. Birth certificates and death certificates are some of those that are on the card.
“We can’t do all, but the key ones that were identified by the Registration Department using their own criteria is what we are digitising and we expect that certainly by the end of this financial year most of those records will be digitised so they can be easily searched.”
The Minister explained that Cabinet had agreed that the priority agencies are the ones that affect Barbadians the most.
Senator McConney said: “The Cabinet over a year ago identified the priority agencies that would be digitised. We determined which agencies will be a priority, based on the biggest bulk bearers for the public because as a citizens-centred Government, we have to put the people’s interests, needs, concerns and expectations first.
The agencies that have been earmarked as first-movers in digitisation are the Customs, Immigration, Registration, and Police Departments, the Licensing Authority, Ministry of International Business and Town and Country Development Planning Office, she said. (IMC)
