$75 million for a new INZ IT system…
…what could possibly go wrong?
Well now, I’m not saying that it actually will go wrong – I’m just saying I don’t have a huge amount of faith is all.
The Immigration Global Management System is due to start being implemented later in 2012. (Not due for competetion till 2015 though). And let’s be clear – INZ really do need it – the system they use now is a joke, and enables a huge amount of immigration to occur that would be stopped if staff could actually see info from other offices. The system is so antiquated – INZ can’t even access records electronically and have to “Courier” documents between offices. It takes over 3 weeks to get paperwork from NZ to London. Mind you – given the state of the internet access in New Zealand – perhaps I am being unfair.
On second thoughts – no – I’m not.
This will certainly fix part of the problem – but the bottom line is that INZ staff are still a major problem – badly trained and often with bad attitudes and appalling lack of knowledge of Immigration Law and processes. No amount of shiny new IT systems is going to fix that problem .
Scarily – the Auditor General reported on this back in June 2009 and recommended a complete overhaul of the system. Now this being the very security of New Zealand’s Borders we are talking about, I would have thought that perhaps they could have sorted this out a bit sooner.
And just for kicks – Immigration New Zealand itself tells us:
Customers applying for visas will have a transformed experience
You notice they don’t say improved? 
I was trying to find out who was going to be responsible for putting the system in – but all I could find anywhere was cut-and paste reporting of the press release from the immigration minister. Hubby has discovered that as of early December, the decision had not been made about who had the contract to put this system in. Can’t say I envy them!
For the IT people out there – EDS are responsible for the current pile of shite masquerading as an IT system.
Auditor General’s Report – we got a mention :)
As we (slowly) work the OAG report in the stuff ups that Immigartion New Zealand have been making for years – we were a bit gobsmacked to find that a (small) part of our submission to them was included.
Knowledge of complaints processes
5.132
We received an expression of concern from a member of the public (Thats lil ol’ me) that the
complaints procedures were hard to find. Certainly, it is not possible to easily
submit a complaint either through the Department of Labour website or through
the Immigration New Zealand website. We were told that the Department is
reviewing the publicly available descriptions of, and means of access to, the
complaints procedures.
5.133
In our view, members of the public should be able to easily find out how to raise
concerns with Immigration New Zealand and know how their concerns will be
dealt with
Way to go!!!
This is a small reminder that no matter how tiny and insignificant you might feel as one or two people trying to make a change in the world – it is worth perservering in the effort.
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Some interesting facts and figures about Immigration New Zealand.
I’m working my way through the Auditors Generals report.
While it will take quite a long time to get through it – there’s some interesting facts and figures that are presented – which actually came as some surprise.
For example – it seems that only 5% of the visa applications that INZ deal with are for permanent entry – 95% of them are for temporary visas such as work or visitor visas. About 60% of all applications – whether for temporary or permanent visas are handled by onshore branches in New Zealand.
There are 16 Offshore Branches of INZ, and 29 “Agency Posts” which are contracted out by INZ in countries that do not require dedicated branches.
The report looked at 10 branches, including the four main onshore branches and London.
Immigration New Zealand accounts for two thirds of Department of Labour funding and employs more than 60% of the staff there.
It takes 5 days of theory training followed by a test to end up with a warrant to be a Visa officer and assess and decide on applications.
20% of Visa decision that were actually reviewed by the OAG were considered to be poor – and most of those were decisions made by Onshore Branches.
Immigration Branches are funded on the basis of the number of immigration decisions that they make. This ended up being a huge concern to the OAG because it encourages sloppy decision making.
The Christchurch and Sydney branches of INZ came up with Project Crusade to clear backlogs of temporary Visa and Permit applications. They fast tracked 1770 applications by not following policy and procedure.
There are now roughly 500,000 applications going into INZ each year – that is for both temporary and permanent visas.
There are 24 verification officers in the Auckland area – working out of a specialist unit, 1 in the London branch and none in Wellington. Verication officers are there to basically verify documents, job offers and the like.
On the other hand – the great news is that:
My Parents and Brother arrive today.
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