THE process of requesting and retrieving a police clearance will soon be streamlined by way of digitisation.
The project, initiated by the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), is expected to benefit many seasonal workers and people in the outer islands, cutting the cost of travel to physical police stations.
One would instead request the certificate by uploading the necessary documents to a Fiji police platform – presently in the discussion stages – pay via mobile wallets or online banking, and receive the police clearance certificate via email.
UNCDF regional technical specialist Galib Azim said: “In the last quarter of 2022 we did this assessment to outline the design of the portal and how it will work. That research has been done and handed over to the Fiji police. Now we are working to deploy a vendor who will create the platform, so hopefully by the end of the year it will be fully activated and launched.”
“In the research we outlined which features should be included to start with. It will be gradual deployment, so first we actually digitise the front end of the process and then gradually the back end processing in the departments of Fiji police and with a few other agencies like border agency and other government services,” he added.
The UNCDF will partially pay for the cost of developing the platform. According to Mr Azim the design and development of the platform is likely to begin in June and once complete will be piloted on a small scale before full launch.