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Overview Jamaica since drafting their Telecommunication Act has been looking
forward to funding E-government strategies. At this moment they have two
departments ready for e-transactions. The
Office of Register of Companies, and their Customs Department. Jamaica has decided to move into the 21st century due to the fact that this will
help citizens in other parishes. This initiative will help the government
serve their people of Jamaica better. Also cut down on staff members burnout
rates dues to long lines and rude people. Although this idea are new I
believe that they will help the Jamaican government to better serve their
citizens and help their staff members to stay sane and safe. At the present time the Registrar is fully
operational. The Office of the
Registrar have 4 major categories.
They are business name, look up business, active business, location of
business. The Customs Department is
still a work in progress the department is suppose to be operational since
March of 2002, but there is not much research online about it. Office of the Registrar of Companies March 2002
The Office of the Registrar of
Companies in Jamaica is responsible for registering all companies doing
business in Jamaica and maintaining records of these companies for tax
purposes. Reporting to the Minister of
Commerce and Technology who reports to the Prime Minister, the Office of the
Registrar of Companies currently maintains a database of more than 60,000
Jamaican companies and once the ORC receives the documents, it had to conduct
a name search to ensure the proposed company name is not being used by
existing company. The process was
cumbersome, as large record books of names had to be manually combed through
for information.
The Filenet Solution
In order to automate this process, ORC
first engaged the consulting firm Coopers & Lybrand to develop a workflow
process. As a result, ORC was soon
convinced that imaging and integrated document management (IDM) was the best
solutions to automating the registration of companies.
(4) The Process
With its automated FileNet record
management solution in place, ORC has been able to exceed its own
expectations for service delivery.
When a new company brings its registration documents to ORC, a clerk
enters the proposed company name into a desktop workstation, which searches
the existing database records using workflow script. The applicants company name is then
immediately approved or rejected. Once
the company name is approved, all of the new company’s documents are then
scanned and indexed into the system.
Ten minutes later the system automatically catalogs them and the
resulting electronic images are forwarded via the workflow module to one of
ORC’s examiners for final review and approval. Jamaica’s business and legal communities
have been pleased with the efficiency of the new system, which lets them
electronically look up information about companies and their registration
status. Benefits of System
FileNet’s records management solution has
brought several important benefits to ORC which include: § Reduced the waiting time for registration of new companies from three or
more weeks down to one to three days § Reduce the name search part of the registration process from several
hours to instantaneous § Enabled easy access to electronic company registration information for
all of Jamaica’s business and legal community § Simplified the approval process for new company registrations § Reduced the problem of lost and misfile documents.
(4) Jamaica Customs Department March 2002
The Government of Jamaica
decided to develop customized software for the Jamaica Customs Department
after review and rejection of available packaged software in the market
place. Fiscal Services Limited (FSL),
a government owned information technology company was assigned the task. Old System
The Jamaica Customs
Department went about their responsibilities primarily in a manual fashion,
which at its core was a paper based system.
The system involved shuffling large amounts of paper through many
processing sections within the department.
Most of the time, the broker or the importers were utilized to move
the paper around. There was a starting
inability to quickly and accurately reconcile revenue collected with the
import entries processed. The
inconsistencies and an absence of accountability were fertile ground for
fraud. New System
It was decided that to
have the import entry data captured at the point of lodgment with the entry
linked into a new collection system.
Import entries would be presented in an electronic form via the
Internet; diskette or paper entries would be keyed at lodgment. This allow the computer system to move these electronic entries easily
among customs processing sections and effect a paperless import entry
processing system. While development of the Customs back-end or cargo processing system was
a challenge in itself, the real difficulty was the development and acceptance
of an application program that would reside on the Broker’s / Importers
computer. Process of System
Validate and submit the
C78 Customs entry electronically. This
new subsystem called the C78 Electronic Entry Lodgment System would: § Capture import Entry data, calculate duties and other taxes, and validate
the entry § Lodge the import entry electronically be connecting seamlessly to the
Customs Automated Services (CASE) website an initiating the file transfer § Receive lodgment confirmation or lodgment rejection with detailed error
analysis § Print the C78 entry, other related forms and reports. CASE or Customs Automated Services, an online
multi-service facility would allow: § Electronic transfer of shipping manifest and other documents via
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) § Broker and Importer access to Information and Query Services § Provide C78 Entry Lodgment Services
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