Presentation on Improving

land administration, management and

promoting data management and accuracy

by

Mrs Deviantee Sobarun

Registrar-General

Registrar-General’s Department -Mauritius

Registrar-General’s Department – 6th Floor of the Emmanuel Anquetil Building

SSR Street, Port Louis

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*The Registrar-General’s Department exists since 1804.

*All title deeds and documents were hand written with permanent ink.

*Professionals and members of the public were queueing up for long

hours to avail of the services of the Department.

*The staff of the Department were recording information in registers

by hand.

*A physical seal was affixed on the documents.

*Search was being carried out by removing big and heavy registers

from shelves.

* In the year 2005, Registering Property in Mauritius was ranked 157th

out of 183 economies in the World Bank Ease of Doing Business and

the overall ranking position of Mauritius was 23rd

History

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Vision

To be a pioneer in the registration domain in the region by adopting state of

the art technology. Thus, increasing the reputation of Mauritius as a world

class eservices provider.

Mission To make a paradigm shift from a paperbased organization to a paperless one.

To provide end-to-end online services.

To adopt reforms for efficient collection of revenue at source thus reducing cost

of operation.

To be abreast with developments occurring globally in the fields of records

management pertaining to properties and revenue collection.

To have a leaner, highly productive work force made up of multi skilled,

innovative and engaged people.

To create an innovative and conducive work environment for our staff and enable

them to excel for our customers.

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Collection of revenue

Giving publicity to land transactions

Registration of documents

Functions

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Why the need to Reform ? To keep pace with the developments that are occurring in the

world.

To improve business facilitation.

Materials (registers, permanent ink) that were essential for

continuing on paper based system were no longer available in the

market.

Deterioration of old paper based registers.

Registers were being torn out, tampered and were not maintained.

Staff with computer skill could not be retained in the old fashioned

office, thus resulting in a lack of staff.

Lack of space to shelf the increasing number of registers.

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Main partners in our reforms

Investment Climate Facility for Africa (donor organisation under the World Bank

Group)

Ministry of Finance & Economic Development

State Law Office

Ministry of Information Technology, Communication and Innovation

Ministry of Housing and Lands

Ministry of Civil Service & Administrative Reforms

Board of Investment

Chamber of Notaries

Mauritius Law Society

Mauritius Bankers Association Ltd

Private Sector

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Vendors involved in the Reforms

JV Norway Registers Development & SAS Software

Solutions Ltd

Airbus Defence and Space Limited

State Informatics Limited

Infoterra Limited

De Chazal Du Mee Consulting Ltd

KPMG Advisory Services Ltd

Bison Enterprise Ltd

Camwad

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Prior to 2002, a summary of all land transactions

pertaining to an individual was recorded in a paper-based

Repertory.

The Repertory has been transformed in an electronic register and

the electronic system generates the Name Index.

The recording of cash collections related to land transactions

which was paper-based has been computerised at the same time.

Reforms on Repertory and Cash System

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Reforms on Work Processes From year 2005 to year 2008, work processes have been reviewed and

streamlined.

Creation of one stop shop for certain activities.

Elimination of non-value added activities.

Performance Management System (PMS) has been fully implemented.

These reforms have laid the basis to allow the Department to shift to

electronic mode.

Main Results

Elimination of bottleneck.

Reduction in time taken to register a property from 210 days to 15 days.

Registering property in Mauritius was ranked 66th in the World Bank Ease of Doing

Business Survey and the overall ranking of Mauritius was 17th out of 183 economies.

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Reforms on the Information System

Prior to year 2002, Search was carried within RGD office on paper-based registers.

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With the computerisation of the repertory, information found therein could be

accessed electronically. Only 11 computers were available at that time.

In year 2007, a Search Room, equipped with 50 stations, was set up

to facilitate Search to be carried out electronically.

In year 2014, with the implementation of the Mauritius eRegistry

Project (MeRP),the Search Room was further modernised and is

now equipped with 100 computers.

In year 2015, Search Online is being implemented.

Main Results

Search is more rapid, accurate and less tedious .

Easy access to more information

Cosy environment

Reforms on paper-based Registers

From year 2008 to year 2013, Name Index and Repertories, which were paper based

registers and dating back from 1804 to 2002, have been scanned and uploaded in the

electronic system. Scanned images of the repertories have been linked to the

electronic repertory.

A Project was initiated in 2010 to laminate deteriorated deeds so as to preserve the

historical data for at least 400 years.

In parallel, from year 2008 to year 2011 the Register of Deposits where a Title Number

is allocated to each land transaction has been computerised. It was linked to the

Cashier System and the Electronic Search Room.

Furthermore, during the same period, the Land Administration, Valuation and

Information Management System (LAVIMS) was implemented by the Government of

Mauritius.

LAVIMS consists of four major components, which are: Cadastre;

Deeds;

Valuation; and

Information Management System (IMS).

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Under the Deed Component, all deeds dated from 1978 to 2011 archived at

the Registrar-General’s Department (RGD) and incoming deeds until May

2014 have been scanned and uploaded in the database of LAVIMS which

could be accessed by RGD Officers for daily operations and for Search by

members of public .

From year 2013 to year 2014, with the implementation of the Stage 1 of

the Mauritius eRegistry Project (MeRP), the remaining deeds in the archive

of RGD from 1804 to 1978 have been scanned and uploaded in the LAVIMS

database. Thereafter, all the deeds in the LAVIMS database were

migrated in the database of RGD (eRegistry System).

As from 19 May 2014 all the deeds are scanned and uploaded in the

eRegistry and replicated in LAVIMS. Currently, all paper-based registers

and deeds pertaining to land transaction are available on the system and

the services within RGD have been fully automated.

All paper-based Registers and Deeds are being stored for reference

purposes.

Reforms on paper-based Registers (Contd)

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Though all the reforms that I have just highlighted had been implemented, theRegistrar-General’s Department(RGD)was still providing the services using semi-automated systems that were outdated and prone to delays and inaccuracies.

In this context, the RGD has implemented the Mauritius eRegistry Project (MeRP) totransform the Department from a Service to an e-Service organization so as to provideintegrated workflows and options for businesses, professionals and members of thepublic to conduct transactions with the Department over the internet.

The project is jointly financed by the Government of Mauritius and theInvestment Climate Facility for Africa (ICF).

KEY COMPONENTS OF MeRP.

eRegistry Software and Hardware

Digitization of Land Archives

Security Audit

Office Refurbishment

Capacity Building

Change Management and Communication Strategy

Project Management and Quality Assurance

Amendments in legislations

Mauritius eRegistry Project (MeRP)

The project has been implemented in two stages:

Stage I

The Stage 1 pertains to modernization of RGD by implementing a software system called eRegistry. All services within RGD have been automated and RGD officers are providing services using sophisticated software tools.

Mauritius eRegistry Project (MeRP)

The eRegistry system comprises amongst others, the

following:

Integrated cashier and registration module

Integrated search engine for registered document

Taxation module

Reporting engine

User and security administration module

In parallel the following components had been completed :

Digitization of Land Archives

All paperbased records from 1804 to 1979 in the archive of RGD have been

digitised and integrated with the LAVIMS under which records from 1979 up to

16 May 2014 had already been digitized. Thus, the whole archive of RGD have

been digitized and kept in the MeRP database. The worn out registers have

been laminated.

Office Refurbishment

The office has been refurbished to adapt to the requirement of a Modern Customer waiting area equipped with:

QMS (Queue Management System) to manage customer flow.

New counters and sophisticated tools haven been provided to staff to deliver better

service to customers.

The layout of the back office has also been redesigned and new

furniture and equipment has been provided to officers.

Capacity Building

Both RGD staff and stakeholders (Notaries, Lawyers, Bankers) have followed training to

enable them to use the MeRP system effectively.

Workshops were organized for stakeholders and staff.

Awareness campaigns have been carried out to reduce risk of resistance.

Amendments in Legislations

All legislations related to registration and recording

of Land Transactions and other properties had been

amended to support the change from paper

registration to electronic mode and the digital

signature.

The Stage 1 has been implemented on 19 May 2014.

Mauritius eRegistry Project(MeRP)

Stage 2

The second Stage focuses on online services. The key objective of this Stage is to

provide the customers with an electronic dashboard through which they can do the

following tasks:

Submission of documents

Payment of fees

Receiving eRegistered documents

Conducting Search Online on Land Transactions

Online services has been implemented on 30 June 2015 and can be accessed at this

url https://eregistry.govmu.org/online/.

A Call Centre and a Help Desk have also been set up

to assist stakeholders to use the eRegistry System.

The communication campaign was reinforced through TV spots, Newspaper

and Pamphlets.

The Website of the Department has been revamped:

http://mof.govmu.org or http://registrar.mof.govmu.org/

Video tutorial and how to’s are accessible

Quality Assurance and IT Security Audit were conducted throughout the

project.

Application Programme Interface (API)

An API has been developed concurrently so as to enable other government

agencies and stakeholders to connect to the database of RGD through their

system.

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Change Management

Acceptance of Digital Signature

Use of new technologies

Capacity Building (Training of Staff

and Stakeholders)

Completion of project within timeframe and budget

Connectivity

Strengthening internal IT team

Dependencies on other Government agencies

Lengthy procurement procedures

Managing multiple vendors simultaneously

Ensuring optimal Information Security

Transformation without affecting service delivery and quality

Challenges

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Good governance and transparency (Establishment of best practices).

Recognition of digital documents submitted from any part of the world

following promulgation of laws .

Full cycle PKI Infrastructure implemented in Mauritius.

Implementation of an Application Programme Interface (API) to connect to

any other system.

Trigger stakeholders to go paperless.

Implementation of an Audit Trail to help trace of any change made to the

database.

Easier and faster registration process through automation of services.

Staff are working in a better and cleaner environment using sophisticated

tools and equipment.

Benefits of MeRP

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Benefits of MeRP

Stakeholders can now operate from anywhere where internet is available.

More flexibility in conducting business with the RGD (24/7).

Option to pay online, thus reducing the use of cheques by

stakeholders.

Reduction of the number of visits by customers at RGD.

Reduction of time spent at RGD for professionals and citizens.

Fully automated integrated flows making the experience of professionals

and citizens richer- tracking of registration process of a document from

submission to retrieval and archiving of documents in the system.

Paperless environment within RGD.

INNOVATING TO SERVE THE POPULATION BETTER

The Mauritius eRegistry Project has obtained four awards for

excellence and innovation

THANK YOU

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