North West Education Dept using biometrics

North West Department of Education employs biometric technology in its payroll systems

The department rolled out a province wide initiative to capture biometric data of all individuals on the payroll

The North West Department of Education has protected its payroll integrity with the assistance of IT services and solutions provider, Datacentrix, and its local partners, L@Wtrust and Dithako Technologies.

The department is now using physical biometric verification systems for its educators and support staff. This is to ensure the validity of the North West province’s payroll system and to prevent fraud.

More than 220 people across the entire North West Province were involved with the logistical operation to capture information at registration stations. Nearly 30,000 people from more than 2,000 schools registered and authenticated their information.

The payroll was halted for the project, and in order for employees to receive payment, they had to visit a registration station to validate their personal details, as well as produce satisfactory proof of identity.

The locally developed eDNA Payroll Integrity system captured a digital picture of each person and a digital copy of their Identity Documents. Biometric technology was employed to capture the unique fingerprints of each employee, which were then stored in a record verification database.

An Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) then compared the fingerprints of the employees against the database to ensure maximum integrity of the system.

“The North West Department of Education is proud of its role in pioneering good practices around the proactive management of payroll fraud,” says James Botha, Chief Financial Officer of the North West Department of Education.