Digital revolution key to public sector upgrade

Government is reaffirming its commitment to improving the way it does business, saying it is pressing ahead with the digital transformation of the public service as a major part of its plan.

On Sunday during a St George South branch meeting at the Ellerton Community Centre, guest speaker Minister of Industry, Innovation, Science and Technology Davidson Ishmael said that Government recognised the importance and necessity of enhancing its services to operate in a more efficient and effective way.

Acknowledging that a number of services were conducted in a slow and inconveniencing manner, Ishmael said the time had come to do better.

“You would have heard that Government is seeking to transform all of our written records, analog and paper-based records and we are seeking to transform them into digital records. It means that the millions of pieces of paper that are sitting in government offices, that are stacked up to the roof in some cases or in filing rooms, where there are ten and 15 filing cabinets, we are trying to move all of those from being paper-based and analog to digitising them so we have digital records of them.

“So when you go into a government office now, you don’t have to wait for people to find your file. Think of it in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital context . . .There are people who cannot get surgeries because their medical records can’t be found and surgeries on delay because files can’t be found . . . those are things that would become a thing of the past. 

“We are now going to digitise the records of Government to allow us to be more efficient and effective in delivering our services to the people of Barbados. This is absolutely important because we have to serve the people in a better, more productive and more effective way.”

Ishmael added that part of the digital transformation process included the digitisation of services, which would allow people to renew their driver’s licence and other documentation online at a time most convenient to them. 

“Can you imagine the efficiency of not having to stand up in a long line at Licensing Authority? How many times have you passed there and see people wrapping around the building? It is horrible. So we are trying to make services digital so that people would have the convenience of not having to go to any office, they can do it online.”

The minister noted that the new application process for receiving a Police Certificate of Character was a testament to Government’s success this far in its digitisation efforts as applicants no longer had to endure long waits to receive the document.

Ishmael added that Government was also in the process of upgrading the tools public servants used so they could be more productive.

“We have some very age-old systems in the public service and we have to change them. We are in the process of making sure that every single public sector worker has the most modern tools at their disposal so that they can do their jobs in the best and most efficient way. We cannot have 21st century public services operating on 19th or 20th century technologies. It just does not make any sense,” he said. (SZB)