<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Which the 154th tries to turn into a eulogy again!
ICA clinches regional service award with e-visitor
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Serene Luo
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->OVERWORKED counter staff and rising operational bills pushed the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) to look for a solution.
It found it in technology.
The e-visitor program on its website, which allows those planning a visit here to apply for and obtain visas, among other services, has clinched a regional award for service innovation.
The Government Technology Award, which is into its second instalment, is handed out by FutureGov, a regional magazine and conference organiser for public-sector officials.
ICA beat three other shortlisted finalists in its category, including a pensions project from India and a tele-health one from the Philippines.
More than 450 public-sector nominations were submitted this year.
The ICA's e-visitor program, targeted at tourists, saves the Singapore Government about $1.2 million a year.
It also saves what would otherwise have been a million hours of waiting time for the people the program serves.
A spokesman for RMG Travel said that making visas so painlessly obtainable online is likely to draw more tourists here.
The visas are issued electronically, and the notifications for them are sent via e-mail or faxed over to the tourists.
In the past, said the RMG spokesman, he had to pick up the visa stickers personally and then have them couriered overseas to his clients - a process which took up to five days.
Using technology has also boosted staff morale at ICA.
In the past, those turning up at ICA's counters, frustrated by the long wait for service, 'would raise their voices, or say something unpleasant in the heat of the moment and front-line officers would bear the brunt of it', said the senior manager of the Visitor Service Centre, assistant commissioner Jaswant Singh.
Of the 800 people applying for extensions of their stay daily, only 80 show up in person at the ICA building.
The rest are served online.
The redeployed staff have thus been able to turn their attention to breaches in immigration rules. This year, they detected a 40 per cent rise, over last year, in the number of tourists with double identities or who made false declarations.
ICA clinches regional service award with e-visitor
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Serene Luo
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->OVERWORKED counter staff and rising operational bills pushed the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) to look for a solution.
It found it in technology.
The e-visitor program on its website, which allows those planning a visit here to apply for and obtain visas, among other services, has clinched a regional award for service innovation.
The Government Technology Award, which is into its second instalment, is handed out by FutureGov, a regional magazine and conference organiser for public-sector officials.
ICA beat three other shortlisted finalists in its category, including a pensions project from India and a tele-health one from the Philippines.
More than 450 public-sector nominations were submitted this year.
The ICA's e-visitor program, targeted at tourists, saves the Singapore Government about $1.2 million a year.
It also saves what would otherwise have been a million hours of waiting time for the people the program serves.
A spokesman for RMG Travel said that making visas so painlessly obtainable online is likely to draw more tourists here.
The visas are issued electronically, and the notifications for them are sent via e-mail or faxed over to the tourists.
In the past, said the RMG spokesman, he had to pick up the visa stickers personally and then have them couriered overseas to his clients - a process which took up to five days.
Using technology has also boosted staff morale at ICA.
In the past, those turning up at ICA's counters, frustrated by the long wait for service, 'would raise their voices, or say something unpleasant in the heat of the moment and front-line officers would bear the brunt of it', said the senior manager of the Visitor Service Centre, assistant commissioner Jaswant Singh.
Of the 800 people applying for extensions of their stay daily, only 80 show up in person at the ICA building.
The rest are served online.
The redeployed staff have thus been able to turn their attention to breaches in immigration rules. This year, they detected a 40 per cent rise, over last year, in the number of tourists with double identities or who made false declarations.
