Department of Internal Affairs

Department of Internal Affairs

Context

The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) provides a range of services supporting government, communities and citizenship. The Department provides policy advice to its Ministers in the areas of local government, gambling, racing, fire, citizenship, identity and censorship.

DIA provides personal identity and key life events services; grants and community advisory services; and provides regulations and compliance standards for gambling, racing, fire, and censorship issues.

Department of Internal Affairs E-government Initiatives

• Increasing online services
• Real time credit checking
• Mobile computing
• Authentication
• Data sharing
• Systems to support online consultation

Summary

Ready Access: DIA's websites and metadata are of a high standard, providing ready access to information and services.

Alignment: DIA is beginning to offer online services. Because of DIA's responsibilities for identity services, DIA is centrally involved in the EGU's authentication project.

Internet and Communications Technology

DIA uses the Internet extensively to enable a diverse audience to access its information and services. DIA's websites provide information and some downloadable forms. Online services are increasingly being offered, such as the Community Organisation Grants Scheme and Gaming e-Licences.

DIA is developing online verification to directly check a person's ability to pay with the appropriate bank or credit card issuer before payment for online services is accepted. The online verification will principally be used for birth, deaths and marriages (BDM) registry information.

DIA intends to use the Internet more widely to facilitate its work with other agencies. For example, DIA is leading a scoping study to develop options for improved electronic interfaces between central and local government. Shared WorkSpaces may be used to facilitate the study because of the number of people involved, and their distribution throughout New Zealand.

DIA plans greater use of the Internet to gather and share data, although some security and privacy restrictions will need to be worked through first. For example, DIA is considering how its BDM registry information can be better accessed and managed using the Internet. Potentially, the registry information could be shared with all agencies that hold and provide services to individuals. Similarly, the Internet would enable marriage celebrants, hospitals and funeral directors to enter information directly into the registry.

Internet based systems are beginning to be introduced to support internal information management. For example, DIA will introduce Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) to help service delivery by ensuring that services are delivered effectively across all geographic regions. GIS is likely to be introduced firstly to support BDM and the gaming sector. It is likely to use Land Information New Zealand base data, combined with information from Statistics New Zealand and the Ministry of Social Development.

Many of DIA's staff would benefit from improved access to information using mobile computing. Mobile computing is considered especially important as many staff work away from offices.

DIA has been a major contributor to the EGU's authentication project because of its responsibility for identity services.

Ready Access to Information and Services

Metadata

DIA has 93 metadata records that provide good coverage of DIA information and services on the portal. The metadata is of a very high standard, clearly written and targeted to a general audience.

Metadata is well maintained, and is kept up-to-date and accurate. Metadata provides ready access to DIA's forms, information and services, and there are only a few possibilities for additional metadata.

Website Assessment

Websites assessed in June 2004 included:
www.dia.govt.nz
www.mcdem.govt.nz
www.dogsafety.govt.nz
www.lgc.govt.nz
www.ethnicaffairs.govt.nz

But excluded: CG Online, Beehive

Overall, the DIA's websites are of a high standard. DIA's main website and its dog safety site performed especially well.

The strengths of the DIA sites are in information delivery and required government content. In future, site usability and e-services delivery could be improved.

Key quality issues noted during the assessment included:

• Good range, depth and presentation of information and services content.
• Usability and site navigation could be improved for easier use.
• Required email addresses are not available or were not answered during the assessment.
• Missing accessibility features such as navigation skipping and style sheet problems may impede some physically impaired people's access.
• Some broken links prevent people from accessing certain content.
• Some documents are in PDF or Word only, excluding people who are unable or unwilling to read these formats.
• More links could be added between relevant web pages.
• Contact details could be more specific to enable responsive handling of enquiries.

Alignment With E-government Goals

Convenience and Satisfaction

Two call centres complement information available on websites. One call centre is for identity services and general information, and the second is for community grants. 0800 numbers are also available for people who need information about gaming and DIA's translation service.

The translation service is reliant on Internet technology, especially email, because freelance translators are based throughout New Zealand.

Integration and Efficiency

Generally, the level of information and service integration is not high. This is because many of DIA's services are stand-alone, and unrelated to DIA's other business units or services provided by other agencies.

However, DIA has some services that do lend themselves to better integration, such as the BDM registry and passport information. DIA is considering opportunities to integrate this information with other service providers. Where information sharing occurs within DIA, information sharing policies, agreements and standards have been developed.

Participation

DIA provides consultation documents on its websites and encourages people to provide submissions. Consequently, DIA receives a high number of submissions, and is therefore considering introducing a system to help manage the number of submissions received.