Department of "Innovation" indeed

Nijmegen

I heard a funny/sad story from a peer today I thought I would relate here, as it speaks volumes about the "forward thinking" nature of our government and public sector.

The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation (neé Employment) is responsible for all those things written on the tin. The likes of the IDA come under their remit, responsible for bringing multinational companies into the country.

This friend of mine, who works at a foreign multinational that employs a mid-sized staff here, needs to make a payment to the department. Because of the nature of their business the company doesn't use an Irish bank, but an Irish branch of their multinational bank, and it doesn't issue quaint things like cheques - which are supposed to have been phased out by and large according to previous government directives.

The DETI responds to his query relating to electronic bank transfer details and tells him flatly, we only do cheques or bank drafts or postal orders. No chance of an EFT, whatsoever, despite repeated attempts at asking.

I've also done business with other branches of the PS, and while some of them will allow EFT payments I know the majority use cheques still, though every so often a new one will enquire after bank details to begin the process of switching to an electronic system.

Still, I found it amazing that the department responsible for dealing with international companies - who work almost exclusively in electronic banking - and "innovation" in a government that has stated its aim to do away with paper based banking, is still in the dark ages when it comes to accepting payments.

It goes to say a lot about the politicial will and the organisation throughout the government sector that something as simple as this eludes us in Ireland.

Gunmonkey

Sadly its just the way a lot of the Goverment services are outdated. Had a friend who was writting up a report for the Social Services but had to copy it to a floppy disk to bring it in as none of the computers had CD/DVD drives or USB ports.

Dunno where the problem lies: insufficient funding for up-to-date equipment, lack of training programs in newer technology, failure to implement mandatory training, just plain bureuacracy.

mikemac

You make a fair point Gunmonkey

But then if the government announced they were going to spend tens of millions on new computers and training for social welfare offices, I'd be reading posts here complaining on that too.

Using old computers and floppy discs isn't unique to the public service.
I've worked in hotels that used Windows 3.1. Why? Because it worked!

AIB are similar, old terminals but they work as well as any fancy new system.
Of course if AIB decided to upgrade all their computers and spend millions on a new computer system there would be many new threads here.

Head The Wall

Gunmonkey wrote: »

Sadly its just the way a lot of the Goverment services are outdated. Had a friend who was writting up a report for the Social Services but had to copy it to a floppy disk to bring it in as none of the computers had CD/DVD drives or USB ports.

Dunno where the problem lies: insufficient funding for up-to-date equipment, lack of training programs in newer technology, failure to implement mandatory training, just plain bureuacracy.

Those devices are often removed or disabled to stop people installing rubbish, possibly stealing data or to prevent virus'

Scarab80

Nijmegen wrote: »

I heard a funny/sad story from a peer today I thought I would relate here, as it speaks volumes about the "forward thinking" nature of our government and public sector.

The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation (neé Employment) is responsible for all those things written on the tin. The likes of the IDA come under their remit, responsible for bringing multinational companies into the country.

This friend of mine, who works at a foreign multinational that employs a mid-sized staff here, needs to make a payment to the department. Because of the nature of their business the company doesn't use an Irish bank, but an Irish branch of their multinational bank, and it doesn't issue quaint things like cheques - which are supposed to have been phased out by and large according to previous government directives.

The DETI responds to his query relating to electronic bank transfer details and tells him flatly, we only do cheques or bank drafts or postal orders. No chance of an EFT, whatsoever, despite repeated attempts at asking.

I've also done business with other branches of the PS, and while some of them will allow EFT payments I know the majority use cheques still, though every so often a new one will enquire after bank details to begin the process of switching to an electronic system.

Still, I found it amazing that the department responsible for dealing with international companies - who work almost exclusively in electronic banking - and "innovation" in a government that has stated its aim to do away with paper based banking, is still in the dark ages when it comes to accepting payments.

It goes to say a lot about the politicial will and the organisation throughout the government sector that something as simple as this eludes us in Ireland.

My guess is that there are a few people employed in the physical handling of paper based payments and the unions would resist any changes to computerise this system (without some kind of compensation anyways).

Compare that to Revenue who are actively trying and incentivising customers to switch to online paperless filing and EFT payment systems. What is so different about revenue to every other government department???

Head The Wall wrote:

Those devices are often removed or disabled to stop people installing rubbish, possibly stealing data or to prevent virus'

That's ridiculous. Run a back office monitoring system and hold each employee responsible for what happens on their log on.

ei.sdraob

hi there Dumbo (the big cute pink elephant in room)

how can a bureaucracy or state organised organisation be in charge of or "seed" innovation?

we already have EI (whose job is along the lines) and they have a fairly **** record at fostering innovation (spoken from experience of dealing with them)

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

Head The Wall

Scarab80 wrote: »

That's ridiculous. Run a back office monitoring system and hold each employee responsible for what happens on their log on.

Yes close the door after the horse has bolted, maybe some people like to create more work for them selves but I don't. it's easier to prevent things happening than leaving them open for abuse and having to rectify the shít they cause later

Nijmegen

The difference between Revenue and all other branches of the state is that Revenue is a collections based department :-) It is somewhat amusing for the taxpayer to note that they are generally the most efficient and up to date department of government.

It's a pity not many of the ones that spend what they raise are half as efficient at giving the money back to us in services.

There is no excuse for not utilizing electronic banking: Its faster, it's cheaper, it's more efficient and it's safer - the controls on electronic banking in my and other companies are granular.

As for floppy discs and control issues - a good IT setup will allow you to control data access in and out, not simply block things off.