Each year there’s funding allocated in the Attorney General’s Office budget to upgrade the immigration computer system.
But as cases coming before the courts indicate, there are lapses with the computer system at Immigration resulting in persons who are prohibited from entering the territory being able to make their way back.
A comprehensive upgrade of the Immigration computer system is being launched and one of the designers of the original computer package installed about 15 years ago at Immigration is the contractor for the job.
Attorney General Talauega Eleasalo Ale says a Source Evaluation Board and IT team of the AG’s Office and Immigration studied the best option for upgrading Immigration’s computer system and decided on awarding the contract to Tepatasi Lealofi, who was the designer of the original system installed at Immigration.
He said while one option was to look for a contractor from off island. the SEb Board’s reasoning was to have the original developer of the immigration system carry out the upgrade.
The computerization of immigration records was carried out by a local company that’s now defunct called Express Electronics, owned by Mr. Gerhard Sword.
The system was to link up immigration, port and airport and was designed to record electronically passports of everyone coming and leaving the territory, identify those who are here on visitor permits and notify authorities when permits expire and visitors need to leave the territory.
The AG says only the first phase of the Immigration computerization was completed but unfortunately the second phase was never carried out.
He said the SEB Board decided that it was best to have Mr. Lealofi carry out the upgrade because he was the one that designed the original software and knows what ‘s needed.
One of the additional features of the Immigration computer system is that payments will be linked up to Treasury’s financial accounting system, IFAS.
The AG says the awarding of the contract to Mr. Lealofi has been vetted through the procurement process .
