Pretoria - The Department of Home Affairs has won the coveted ICT Service Delivery and Transformation Award in the National Government category at the ICT Public Service Awards.
The awards were held at GovTech 2015 in Durban on Sunday.
The ICT Service Delivery and Transformation Award seeks to recognise and reward the most outstanding service delivery, or a product or service, and/or transformation at a national government level.
The Department of Home Affairs was nominated for the Smart ID Card project, which forms part of the department’s broader modernisation programme.
Requirements for entry included, among other things, a clear demonstration of the benefit to the citizen, a demonstration of the improvement to government processes or business, a demonstration of sustainability of the service delivery solution, the impact of the transformation on the lives of citizens and a description detailing how the solution has proved to be accessible, usable and has successfully been deployed for use by citizens.
Home Affairs Director-General Mkuseli Apleni welcomed the award, saying the recognition is testament to the department’s commitment to delivering quality service.
“The Department of Home Affairs will always strive to improve its systems through the creation of a high-security, uninterruptible environment within which the people, systems and infrastructure can be protected.
“To this end, we have recently announced collaboration with major financial institutions with a view to expanding our footprint while ensuring that our clients are able to access our services in a convenient manner,” Apleni said.
Some of the country’s largest banks have agreed to open applications for Smart ID Cards at some of their branches.
The department introduced Smart ID Cards in 2013 as part of a process of moving towards a “paperless environment” in the department.
The new cards cut down on the fraudulent use of fake or stolen IDs, as they are harder to forge. – SAnews.gov.za
