Software will see who's on site and who's workshy and doesn't get paid

Imagine only getting your wage after facial recognition and fingerprint readers have biometrically verified your identity, recorded your attendance on site and the hours worked.

This is now a reality with the unveiling by the Gauteng department of infrastructure development on Tuesday of its new Identification Validation System.

The system will allow it to overhaul the management of the Extended Public Works Programme (EPWP) in the province.

Speaking at Lutsinga Infrastructure House, the department's electronic monitoring hub in Johannesburg, MEC Jacob Mamabolo said that the system would address a range of weaknesses that had plagued the programme in the past.

"The auditor-general has highlighted concerns that the EPWP system is not secure enough and that there are too many loopholes allowing the system to be manipulated. Many crooks are benefiting from this system, and we need to put an end to this,” Mamabolo said.

He said the facial recognition platform, coupled with the fingerprint data, ensures that we are able to authenticate the identity of every person working in EPWP and detect and prevent duplicates, eliminating the chance of ghost beneficiaries being created.

"You can’t beat this system. It is going to clean up EPWP,” he said.

In a live demonstration, it was shown how beneficiaries will clock in and out at biometric kiosks on all 658 DID sites across the development corridors of the province. The new system is able to enrol a person’s biometric data in less than five minutes and authenticates an identity in less than five seconds. The system automatically links approved and contracted beneficiaries to a specific site and locks them out of sites where they are not approved to work.

The data feeds into the monitoring hub at Lutsinga Infrastructure House where it will automatically detect if a device is being tampered with, thereby ensuring that the system cannot be compromised.

Mamabolo said: “Not only does the system allow us to ensure that this critical poverty- alleviation programme is not misused, it will also address many of the concerns our beneficiaries have raised."

"The right people will be paid, on time, and disputes about hours worked will be eliminated."

In the past, facilitators spent at least three days a month trying to create manual timesheets. The new system would generate timesheets daily, weekly or monthly.

"Corruption, fraud and waste are the enemy of our people, and as government we must sanitise these demons through efficiency," he said. "This system allows us to do that."

The system will also enable DID to generate more opportunities for beneficiaries, the provincial department said.

“EPWP is also about developing skills,” Mamabolo said. “A beneficiary file is created when a candidate applies. The system automatically checks if the candidate meets the criteria of the applicable programme. As DID creates more programmes, and more people are provided with skills, the system will track these skills and when opportunities for employment come up, the upskilled beneficiaries will be marketed to potential employers."