Auditor General report – The NZIS computer system sucks.
I’ve taken a few days off from blogging about this – because frankly it’s just too depressing to work through every day. I take my hat off to the staff at the Office of the AG – because it must have done their heads in!
Anyway – one of the things they looked at was the computer system that INZ uses to help process applications. Its called the Application Management system (AMS), and the OAG team had to make use of it extensively in their investigations. They were less than impressed it appears.
This doesn’t surprise me. When we were having problems with the London branch – we asked to be sent the entire file so we could see what was really going on at their end. Any applicant is entitled to this under the Official Information Act and INZ has to respond within 20 working days. As part of this request – we were given a printout from the AMS. It was appalling. No wonder the staff can’t keep abreast of applications.
There was very little information in the file – merely a list of actions taken and letters sent – almost no details on the contents of the correspondence (until we get to the emails regarding the complaint). The AG also notes this is an issue.
INZ wants to replace the system – this should be done immediately. They may as well be using pen, paper and smoke signals. It turns out that one huge (and I mean massively huge) cock up is that the AMS has absolutely no way of 
storing a photo of the applicant. It also can’t store copies of such basic immigration material as Passports or drivers licences – let alone the mass of documentation that we are required to send in to prove who we are. This explains why it took a staggering 3 weeks for my parents file to be transferred from Wellington to London – because the file has to be physically posted. The mind just boggles. In this day and age – that a department dealing with immigration is still using a computer system that isn’t fully integrated with the internet and have the ability to store basic identification material is absurd.
It also means that staff in New Zealand cannot access any of the information in another on shore branch, let alone off shore branches, by simply accessing the AMS. The AG found a distinct lack of quality in the notes found on the AMS, as this varied between different offices and staff. But then, if no one else is going to be able to access – I can’t help wondering why they would bother to keep good notes anyway.
Apparently the AMS can only make links between family members in an haphazard way – and even then the visa officers have to manually tell the system that two people are in the same family. Again – it just beggars belief that an Immigration department does not track links between families. For crying out loud – we have to go through a whole load of rigmarole to prove we are all related – and yet they can’t be arsed to do the same???
Worse – many of the offshore agency departments don’t even have access to the AMS, bad as it is. Now on the face of it that may not seem such an issue – but let’s be clear here – this is Immigration New Zealand – tasked with protecting the country form undesirables. And many of the offices processing whether people can come to New Zealand or not do not have the software to document the applications and decisions. This is such a basic screw up. These offices account for 40,000 visa applications every year. They have no access to basic info such as previous applications, travel history, warnings or alerts which are held in the AMS. If these branches want to note something – it has to be manually sent to New Zealand and entered on the system from there.
Whoever it is that has made the decision to equip NZIS with such a defunct system should be ashamed. And sacked. The AG seemed to be less than impressed with the speed of the system and the fact that (embarrassing for INZ) it kept crashing on them while they were carrying out the investigation. (Can’t help but chuckle at this one I’m afraid).
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Related posts:
- The Auditor General’s Report on Immigration New Zealand is out.
- Auditor General’s Report – we got a mention :)
- Auditor Generals report on Immigration New Zealand – links
Comments
One Comment on Auditor General report – The NZIS computer system sucks.
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Hubby on
Sat, 13th Jun 2009 4:39 pm
INZ AMS computer system – any resemblance to an abacus is very observant of you!
Seriously – INZ has a decent and really good website which was built by the IT folks at INZ – so someone there knows what they are doing. Even though the AMS may be an application designed in the 1990′s – that’s still no excuse for not being able to attach files of useful things – like photo’s, passports, etc.
The real shame is that this isn’t new news
Even more shockingly, it’s not likely to be fixed this side of 2012.
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