The Consulate General of Sri Lanka in Melbourne has implemented a digital Consular Counter Management System to provide an efficient consular service to the large number of Sri Lankans in the Australian states of Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.
This“App” was launched to reduce the operational expenses of the Consulate General,falling in line with the government policy to reduce expenses, while delivering a better service.
The Consulate General in Melbourne receives around 150 passport applications, 50 applications for birth registrations, 100 attestations, 100 dual citizenship applications etc. per month, requiring a strenuous task by the small staff.
Through this new system applicants are able to obtain a prior appointment to visit the office and they are able to check the status of their applicationson their own.
It has drastically reduced the application processing time as most of the laborious manual record keeping is now done away with.
With the launch of this system, back office processing and transmission of the applications, generating reports and keeping applicants informed of the progress of their applications havebecome fast and efficient.
Not only the applications submitted at the counter but those sent by post also are managed through this system.
Following the proper government procurement procedures, the Sri Lankan software developer “Loons Lab (Pvt) Ltd” was selected to develop this software application, making it the first of its kind application used in any of the Sri Lanka Missions abroad.
Under the guidance of Consul General KapilaFonseka, Consul Diana Perera led this initiative with the dedicated staff who made this difficult digital transformation possible.
