Free State Provincial Government

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Free State Provincial Government

• The road to improvement
• 12 August 2005

PwC
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Agenda

• Focused Improvement Plan
• Capture of beneficiary files
• Capture and filing of loose correspondence
• Re-engineering of business processes
• Management Information System
• The way forward
• Conclusion

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• Implementation of FIP in the Free State
• Department of Social Development
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• Section
• Focused Improvement Plan Department of Social
  Development
• 1

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Focus on improvement
Focused Improvement Plan

• FIP Project Free State Department of Social
• Development
• Aim
• Ranged from increased operational efficiency
  and effectiveness, to reducing the current
  turnaround time from 35 days to 21 days.

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Four major tasks
Focused Improvement Plan

• Capture of all beneficiary files

Capture and filing of loose correspondence
Re-Engineering of Business Processes
Development and implementation of a Management
Information System (MIS)
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Capture of all beneficiary files
Capture of all beneficiary files

• Background
• Grant applications are done at the eleven
  Districts in the Free State, where beneficiary
  files are created, which contain all the critical
  documents required for the grant.
• These files are then transported to the
  provincial office in Bloemfontein, where they are
  receipted at Registry and then forwarded on to
  Verification,for approval or rejection of the
  grant. Files are then returned to the Registry
  section for filing.

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Capture of all beneficiary files continued
Capture of all beneficiary files

• Challenges
• The constraints of the manual filing system
• No distinction between archive and active
  beneficiary files.
• Locating of the file required took anything from
  10 30 minutes.
• Maintenance proved to be time consuming
• Files were damaged due to weight and handling.
• Some files were misfiled, making it near
  impossible to find.
• Available storage space was not used effectively.
• Tracking of a file could not be done from the
  point prior to locating the file in
• Registry.
• Limited access controls

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Capture of all beneficiary files continued..
Capture of all beneficiary files

• Solution
• 40 contract staff were appointed to work on the
  Project. Over a sixteen week period 740 000
  beneficiary files were captured onto an
  Electronic File Management System(EFMS).
• Files were captured into boxes, which were
  numbered and placed onto shelves
• Archive files were separated from active
  beneficiary files, electronically as well as
  physically in the Registry
• The ID Sequence filing fell away as through EFMS,
  the exact location of a file could be
  determined.

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Capture of all beneficiary files continued.
Capture of all beneficiary files

• Solution
• To remove the file from the box and sign out the
  file on EFMS took
• between 3 3.5 minutes
• There are approximately 500 000 grants in payment
  and an additional 240 000 archive files being
  stored in Registry
• With an electronic filing system, a file could be
  tracked
• This decreases the chances of files going missing
  and places responsibility on the individuals
  working with beneficiary files.

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Capture and filing of loose correspondence
Capture and filing of loose correspondence

• Background
• The provincial office receives correspondence
  from the Districts on a daily basis. This ranges
  from
• Life certificates,
• changes in banking or address details to,
• procurator information.
• The Registry section at the time of the tender
  process had a backlog of 355 000 items.

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Capture and filing of loose correspondence
Capture and filing of loose correspondence

• Solution
• The project team over a thirteen week period,
  captured all 355 000 documents and filed them
  into their respective files.

Effective management is key to successful
implementation
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Re-Alignment of Business Processes
Re-alignment of business process

• Solution
• Elimination of processes that duplicated tasks
• Replacing manual controls
• Implementing good practice
• Providing methods to establish accountability
• Re-training up-skilling of staff

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• Working together to
• find solutions
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Section heading goes here
The basement before renovations commenced
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Registry Before
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(No Transcript)
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• Section
• Management Information system
• 2

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The Purpose of MIS
Management Information system

• Imperative for a National and Provincial
  Department to
• Monitor service delivery
• Reduce fraud
• Produce reliable financial management information
• In order to achieve this, each province requires
• A standardised management information system,
• That is less dependant on human interventions and
  
• That is integrated to, inter alia, monitor
  performance of individuals and Provinces.

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Features Of MIS
Management Information system

• Modular Therefore implemented in a phased
  approach
• Standard, consolidated, comprehensive automated
  management reports
• Reduces the risk of fraud
• Provincial benchmarking
• Track, manage and monitor progress of new
  applications, loose correspondence, reviews,
  medical forms, appeals and enquiries
• Source code and intellectual property that is
  owned by government
• Compliance with interoperability standards and
  SITA approved software

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Advantages Of MIS
Management Information system

• Provides management information that is
• Integrated
• Real time / live
• Provincial and or National perspective
• Supports enhanced service delivery efforts
• Facilitates control over core business processes
• Monitors and improves turn around time
• Real-time data, management reports and enquiries

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Management Information system
The Process
ELECTRONIC FILING PROJECT
MIS Workflow tracking module
Electronic file registry

• Link to MIS project
• Data tracking
• Workflow monitoring
• Functional registry system

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Management Information system
Management Information system
Background Due to the manual nature of work
manual method of recording statistics in the
Registry, tracking performance and progress
accurately has been problematic. In order for
the current average turnaround time of 35 days
(to process an application), to be improved to 21
days, it was critical to identify areas in the
workflow where possible delays and bottlenecks
existed, the reasons for this and how to change,
improve or replace the processes.
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Management Information system
Management Information system

• Solution
• An electronic Management Information System
  (MIS), has been developed in conjunction with the
  Department.
• MIS will provide
• necessary tracking
• statistics on the amount of work being done and
  by whom
• support to the management team in decision making
  with comprehensive reports that provide the
  required information.
• The project is currently in the final phase of
  implementing MIS, involving training and support
  for all users.

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• Section
• The Way Forward
• 3

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Dept. of Education HR Registry
Way Forward

• Adaptable easily customised
• Completeness of files identification of
  critical documents
• Tracking the files movement across regions
• Archive inactive files
• Accountability
• Monitoring performance and bottlenecks
• Provides management reports to facilitate
  effective decision making

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Future applications
Way Forward

• Large volume paper based records
• HR files, project files, NGO files, patient
  files, payment vouchers, invoices etc
• Procure-to-Pay
• Fleet management
• Leave form monitoring attendance register

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• Section
• Conclusion
• 4

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• What have we
• experienced
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What have we experienced?
Conclusion

• At a time when government is strongly focused on
  improving service delivery to contribute
  positively to the lives of the countrys poor and
  to crack down on the fraud plaguing the social
  welfare system, it has been a heartening
  experience for us to be involved in this project.
  Working with the Free State Department of Social
  Development, in aligning their processes and
  procedures to meet SASSA standards has been a
  challenging and extremely rewarding experience
  for both us, the project team and the department.

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Finding solutions and implementing effective
systems