On Tuesday we told you that the Public Service will now be using biometric scans across government offices to determine attendance and punctuality.
We also told you that it seems it was implemented before the officers knew about it. This led to the PSU raising several flags. One is whether the data is being kept safe and the other is was the contract to provide these biometric services put out to tender? We know it's being outsourced to a company named Neopeople, but do they have access to public officers' biometric data? Here's what Usher explained.
Henry Charles Usher, Minister of Public Service
"Well, yes, we spoke about this the last time, but it's very important, however, that data is being managed, whether it is outsourced to an organization such as neo people or whether it is hosted in-house at CITO or the confidentiality of that information is critical. So we did a lot of homework when it came to neo people. We made sure that, their ability to store this information was able to protect the data for our public officers, and we feel confident that they do have that capacity. Of course, as you know, there are always, digital hackers out there. I think BTL sent out a release some time ago saying that they get thousands of security breaches of their data information. Same thing happens with banks, financial institutions, Socialsecurity. So if the firewalls that are put in place, the protection of that data is critical. And you know we always making sure that that is at the highest level possible."
"The concerns that public officials have about their data, about the performance appraisals, about their p files, is one that has been ongoing, even with the physical files, because oftentimes those physical files are stored, externally because there's no space in particular ministries, we've heard stories of them being stored in storage containers. The digitizing of those files is a part of the modernizing of the public service. Now, the digitizing of those files does also include protecting the confidentiality of those files. And that's what we intend to do. And that's why we have to insist on that, Whoever is managing those files."
"The process started with our project with the governance. And we had hoped that there would have been further along in terms of the components that they were able to provide, but it was taking too long, and we wanted to get this thing done in terms of the digitizing of the files, because we're not only, digitizing the current files, but we also have pensioners that we also have to digitize their files. And I think that's another 5000 files or so. The is the e-governance project was able to start what's called my GOB. I think you've heard about that. But that component only has to do with leave due to leave maternity leave. If you're going on sick leave, however, it is those that component was completed, but it was taking too long and we need to be able to get this thing done. So we decided to outsource some of the components to neo people. And they were the ones that were able, to provide that service based on the size that we're looking at. Remember, there are over 16,000, files we're dealing with. Plus, as I said, the 5000, for the pension. And so the other, operators weren't able to provide the service for that number."
