Information is at the core of government activities. Managing data and ensuring it is as accurate and up to date as possible is critical for all levels of government in Australia, from local councils to state or federal departments.
Governments collect a wide range of personal information for a variety of reasons. Voting information, tax information, vehicle registration, criminal records, residency information, child safety -the list goes on and on.
Call centres, letters, email, face to face, citizens interact with government via multiple channels. The rise of e-government has also seen a massive increase in data collected via the internet.
According to Experian QAS government research "Almost 95% consider data quality to be a 'priority' or 'important' - but less than 60% have a data quality strategy in place."
However it is captured, the data government departments' possess is vital and the consequences of 'getting data management wrong' are both wide spread and severe.
1. PUBLIC SAFETY AND RISK MANAGEMENT
Imagine if a social worker arrived at a home to check on the welfare of minors in response to a report of abuse - and the address was wrong. Not only would this be embarrassing for the government department, it could also jeopardise the safety of the young people involved. This is just one of numerous scenarios where public safety could be at risk due to insufficient or incorrect data held by government departments.
There are multiple acts and guidelines pertaining to the mitigation of risk through personal information. For example, legislation relating to background checks on employees working with children, criminal records legislation including the National Offenders Register, public housing records, and elder care records. Even emergency services can be affected by improperly collected or maintained government records.
There are multiple acts and guidelines - from the National Privacy Act to state and local based guidelines on personal information and data quality, as well as legislation pertaining to the mitigation of risk through personal information.
2. REPORTING AND COMPLIANCE LEGISLATION
The introduction of increased levels of compliance and reporting place a greater onus on businesses, and government departments, to ensure they are regularly updating and maintaining accurate information within their databases.
For example, the Federal Government introduced privacy protection legislation in 2001 which proscribes that organisations have an obligation to uphold individual's rights to privacy by regulating the collection, usage and disclosure of personal information. Centralising all of the information a department holds about an individual and ensuring its accuracy is imperative to ensure compliance.
Legal requirements from Federal law state that Government departments must archive data for the past 25 years and demonstrate reasonable care in the maintenance of databases. As it is a well-documented fact that 17% of the Australian population move home every year, it immediately becomes obvious that a 25-year-old database will contain an inordinate amount of inaccurate data. Australia Post advises that every day over 9,000 addresses change.
According to the National Privacy Act, "An organisation must take reasonable steps to make sure that the personal information it collects, uses or discloses is accurate, complete and up-to-date." Therefore it is a matter of law that the public services has systems and processes in place to ensure the accuracy of data, both when it is initial collected and over the period of time the data is retained.
3. PROCESS IMPROVEMENT
While Government departments span an overwhelmingly diverse range of functions from education and human services through to emergency services, they share a single goal, the provision of quality services to the citizens of Australia.
Although Government departments operate on a decidedly different methodology to the corporate sector, the aim is to operate in the most efficient manner to drive value from the taxpayer's dollar.
Data quality is an aspect often overlooked by government departments, but one that can offer wide ranging benefits to departments across the board. Not only can the accuracy and validation of data prevent fraud and improve security, it enhances co-operation and sharing of information between departments and allows Government agencies to better interact with the citizens they serve.
For example, the quality of data retained by an agency can be instrumental in preventing fraud. Each address in Australia has a unique DPID code assigned by Australia Post. Government programs that overlap each other can use this code as a means to trace cross program involvement (ie. Community Services, Centrelink and Justice). Fraud can be detected via address verification as multiple claims from a single address will be identified instantly.
IMPROVING GOVERNMENT DATA MANAGEMENT
Successful data management requires a focus on deploying the right people, processes and technology and a focus on proactively managing data quality.
There are several steps government departments can take to improve data management and mitigate the consequences of poor data quality.
1. Determine how the data collected will be used. What will you be doing with the data collected? Are there new products, services, legislation that will arise in the near future that will impact on the type of data you need? For example, do you need just address information or are you planning on increasing communication via other methods such as email or phone? Determining what you want to do with the data, or may want to do with the data, ensures that you are capturing the right information from the beginning.
2. Where are the gaps? Look at the data you already possess and see where information is missing. What are the issues your department is most concerned about? How do you communicate these issues to your citizens? For example, a local council can analyse its citizens service utilisation and payment history to build a picture of the services used in the past and predict what they are likely to use in the future. Combined with lifestyle and geodemographic data profiling, the local council can better develop new services and improve communication with their citizens.
3. How good is your current data? Analyse your existing data to determine how well your existing processes are working to capture and maintain accurate data. Do you have multiple entries for the same person or address, how many incomplete records are in your system, how often are the records verified or updated? Once the quality of your current data is assessed, it will be possible to identify where the process is falling down.
4. Put new process in place Data is constantly decaying. Processes need to be developed and implemented to collect, clean and maintain data in a robust and future proof manner. Think beyond today when developing these systems to how you may need to collect and utilise data in the future.
5. Make technology work for you. Technology makes the daunting task of data verification, both at the point of entry and over the lifecycle of the data, much easier. There are tools to standardise the input of information and verify it at point of entry, tools to clean an existing database by verifying address data against Australia Post's Postal Address File (PAF), and even tools to profile your database based on lifestyle or geodemographic information to better target communication.
6. Measure your progress To ensure that new policies, procedures and technologies are providing improvements and return on investment it is necessary to measure the improvement and performance of your data quality on an ongoing basis. This will also offer you the opportunity to identify new areas which may need improvement or ways new technologies may be able to enhance the data quality even further.
WHAT IS THE G-NAF?
The development and launch of the nation's first index of physical addresses and geocoordinates for the corresponding parcel of land was engineered by the Public Sector Mapping Agency (PSMA) in 2004. The key objective of the Geocoded National Address File (G-NAF) is to provide the ultimate source for actual, physical address data.
The G-NAF is the collation of data provided by 15 government agencies, including Australia Post, Australian Electoral Commission and land and mapping agencies. All these data providers send their files of address data and geocoordinate information to the PSMA. These are then compared, given a confidence level depending on how many times that exact address appears on multiple sources and deduped. The ultimate aim is to create the authoritative national database for physical addressing in Australia.
BENEFITS OF GNAF TO GOVERNMENT
1. Service Provision (Federal & State level)
o By understanding where citizens are located, Service Providers such as Centrelink are able to plot their physical locations onto a map and immediately see if existing centres are close to clusters of those in need of assistance.
o A further example is NSW Health who are able to plot the location of citizens and the location of hospitals and doctors. It can then instantly view whether there is adequate service provision to those in need.
2. Local
o Allows more accurate planning as statistical data can be more closely aligned with areas of interest such as shopping centres or high school catchments. This would support more accurate socio-economic and demographic analysis which would in turn lead to improved government policy and delivery of services and support.
3. Emergency Response
o Streamline the incidence response processes and decrease response times
o Emergency crews can pinpoint the exact location of an address
o Houses under immediate bushfire threats can be located and warned with the aid of GNAF
o Beneficial in Counter Terrorism responses. With GNAF, authorities can ensure resources are immediately directed to exactly the right location.
CONCLUSION
Government exists to provide citizens with services in an efficient and cost effective manner. These services range from protecting the welfare of children to providing each household with recycling bins and everything in-between. Without accurate and up to data databases, governments will be unable to fulfil their core purpose and will risk failing in key areas such as risk management, public safety, fraud prevention and guaranteeing the privacy of its citizens. It is therefore critical that government department increase their focus on developing and maintaining quality data management processes.
