Manama, September 28 (BNA) The Chief Executive Officer of the Information and e-Government Authority, Muhammad Ali Al-Qaed, announced that a comprehensive plan has been developed to improve Bahraini ID card services.
The move, which came in response to customer feedback on ID card services, appointments, electronic services and physical service center visits, will save between 600 and 1,000 appointments per day. The plan includes reopening the ID card services center in Seef Mall – Muharraq branch. increase the number of fast track employees; Improving electronic ID card services by making procedures more efficient and raising capabilities; and developing more electronic services.
Future initiatives include increasing the number of self-service kiosks, making them available in new locations within the Kingdom closer to the public, and adding advanced electronic key registration services to these devices. The kiosks offer three types of services, ID card chip updates, government notification service registration, and card reading, all without the need to book appointments. From April 2020 to April 2021, more than 26,000 chipset data updates were performed via self-service kiosks.
The commander explained that these improvements are in line with the directives of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, to develop and simplify the services provided to the public through various channels, and to address the suggestions and complaints of the public and the future through communication channels.
Customer suggestions for improvement, including feedback received via the National Suggestions and Complaints System (Tawasul), played a major role in the changes, which were implemented by the Information and eGovernment Authority this year. Among the most prominent of the new offers are the electronic services for addresses available through the national portal bahrain.bh, including requests for amending home addresses, printing address data and verifying the validity of the statement.
The commander indicated that the plan is in line with the directives of the Minister of Interior Major General Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa to simplify the ID card procedures so that it is effectively delivered in the shortest possible time. The Leader valued the Minister’s support, which enabled the Information and eGovernment Authority to continue improving the ID card services. It includes initiatives either based on the existing service structure or by creating new packages, as well as increasing capacity to allow the Information and eGovernment Authority to process a higher average number of monthly transactions, from about 9,500 e-services before the pandemic through March 2020, to 19,200 as of August 2021.
One of the most notable changes is the launch of ID card services at the beginning of this year, including more than 12 electronic services through the national portal, bahrain.bh, mobile applications, and other digital channels. The Information & eGovernment Authority is working on other initiatives, recently launching a number of new ID card services such as the ability to download ID card reader software, improved online appointment system and the option to attach required documents instead of having to email them separately.
Al-Qaed revealed that the number of transactions made online during the epidemic exceeded 410 thousand, thanks to the development of technologies, programs and card printing machines that helped it increase its capacity. This is in addition to allocating an email address [email protected] for ID card transactions, allowing employees to interact directly with the beneficiaries. This speeded up operations and eliminated the need to use a communication app for these types of transactions.
The authority is also improving service delivery times by setting time frames for completing daily ID card transactions, depending on their types, ensuring that employees are able to complete as many transactions as possible.
Al-Qaed said that the authority remains committed to developing and disseminating advanced technology in a set of initiatives and services, in order to meet the demands of the public and ensure that services are processed quickly and easily. He commended the teams of the Information and eGovernment Authority for quickly implementing the plan, adding that more electronic services are scheduled for the upgrade in order to serve the largest possible number of demographic customers and eliminate the need to visit service centers more than once.
NS