AUTOMATION

The Office of the Ombudsman is one of the institutions where 85% of the work is still being done manually. This entails a lot of paperwork and, therefore, a need for more space to store information. Knowing the fact that technology is fast-growing and provides solutions to some of the challenges facing the institution in the area of knowledge management, at the same time as part of aligning the institution to prevailing best practices, and government initiative on e-government, the office embarked on an initiative to automate most of its operations. In essence, the office aims to automate case handling/management processes to ease handling of cases. Similarly, efforts will also be put into automating operations in the support services, which include management and administration. This will ensure speed in handling matters while at the same time ensuring a green, paperless environment. This would also result in reduced stationery and toner costs. In the past three years, there has been some progress on this reform area, including installation of internet in the office’s regional offices, procurement of some equipment such as computers and printers, and submission of a digitalization concept to the Department of e-Government. However, there is still more to be done on this reform area. The follow-up activities on this reform area will take an incremental approach. It is envisaged that, in the next few years, the focus will be the automation of the case management system and general strengthening of Information, Communication and Technology infrastructure, including intra-internet platforms.