Immigration revamp makes milestone

The Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) has completed the first milestone release of its AU$496 million Systems for People technology-led business transformation programme.

Systems for People is a four-year project led by IBM which kicked off in mid-2006 to address shortcomings with DIAC's record-keeping that led to the embarassing wrongful detention of Cornelia Rau and Vivian Alvarez, among others.

Immigration minister Kevin Andrews said in a statement issued late Tuesday that release one of Systems for People -- which included major changes to the operations of compliance and case management systems in his department -- was successfully implemented on that day.

"These changes mean more consistent business process and decision-making, better quality control of decisions, improved record-keeping and reporting and much improved support for staff to do their jobs well and provide high quality services to the public," said Andrews in the statement. "These changes build on the extensive work underway to change the culture of the department."

Andrews further claimed Systems for People was running "on schedule and on budget".

"From now on, further releases will be implemented every three months, progressively transforming all aspects of the department's operations," he said.