Development of Cash Benefits Management Information System-CBMIS

1. Development of Cash Benefits Management Information System-CBMIS Sanja Andovska, Conditional Cash Transfers Project

2. Republic of Macedonia Population: 2.076 million GDP: $11.32 billion 3.8% growth

3. Development of CBMIS The development of the CBMIS started in December 2010 within the World Bank financed Project “SPIL” and its development and acceptance was achieved within the World bank financed Project “CCT” in September 2011

4. Preparation process The process started with engaging of several international and local consultants that provided input for: Development of policy framework for streamlined, cost effective and better targeted cash benefits (Amendments to the Law); Improvement of the financial management framework for payment of cash benefits; Establishment of new business processes for administration and payment of different kinds of social benefits; Inspection, supervision, monitoring and quality assurance of cash benefits as well as social services;

5. Problems occurred during the procurement process Some engaged consultants did not gave the expected outcome and their contracts were terminated The time was passing, the closing date of the SPIL project was getting close, and the bidding documents could not be completed because the description of the benefits module in the bidding document was missing The Project Management Unit played crucial role by starting interviewing the employees in the Ministry of Labor and social policy and in the Social Work Centers that were most familiar with the respective processes and drafted the working processes that compose the Benefits module The period from the engagement of the consultants till the development of the Bidding documents lasted around three years

6. Institutional set-up for Project Management and Implementation

7. The software is composed of the following modules: Benefit Module Financial Module Statistical module Security module

9. Following the development of the CBMIS , the MLSP started to gradually introduce the administration of different cash benefits into the new software, and till the mid of 2014 all of the rights have been administrated in whole through the CBMIS.

10. The benefits of this software are many: Improved targeting. The number of SFA beneficiaries has decreased for almost 50%, Improved control, decrease of the possible abuses, Decreased time spend on the social benefits administration, Decreased overburden on the employees in the SWCs, more time on the prevention, The application process has been simplified, for example now for application for SFA only ID card is requested and all other data from the other institutions are gathered electronically,

11. The benefits of this software are many (cont): Decrease of the applicants costs, increase of their satisfaction, The Data base enables analysis of the cash benefits needed for proper policy planning and changes, Improved decision making, The CBMIS improved the MLSP’s financial management system. The new software solution enabled complete automatization and consolidation of the financial management system, The direct payment on beneficiaries accounts resulted with savings on bank provisions and postal costs,

12. Part II. Activities connected to the CBMIS development Procurement of hardware (2010) Procurement of active and passive network equipment for the MLSP and the SWCs (2010) CBMIS development and training of MLSP and SWC staff (2010-2011) Digitalization and Data entry of beneficiary files (2009-2011)

13. Financial aspects

14. Digitalization and Data entry of beneficiary files • More than 100.000 beneficiary files with more than 6.000.000 pages were scanned and data entered into the CBMIS

15. Part III System security The CBMIS is centralized web application established in the MLSP, It is an closed system of communication between the MLSP and the SWCs. The communication is secured and encrypted, The clients of the system (MLSP and SWCs employees) can access the CBMIS only from defined working locations, and the access is via VPN (virtual private network), The application provides a role-based security i.e. each user has specific role with specified entitlements, based on his type of work and location (for example the social worker from one SWC can see the personal data only for his applicants), The application requires user and password identification in order to be accessed.

16. Data management and reporting • The centralized administration of benefits enables easy data management and producing of different reports • The system generates a number of pre- defined reports that are used on a permanent basis • The MLSP administrators use reporting tool in order to generate other reports based on a specific need

17. Data exchange • In order to obtain the majority of the social rights, the beneficiaries apply with only an personal ID card • All other data needed to confirm that they are eligible for a specific right are gathered officially by the MLSP trough electronic data exchange with other institutions • The data from the following institutions are exchanged automatically, through web services: Pension and Disability Fund, Agency for employment, State cadastre, Health Insurance Fund, The Office for Certificates

18. Future on going project-“Interconnectivity and data exchange between 14 institutions” • The MLSP, within the CCT project, is currently developing project for “Interconnectivity and data exchange between 14 institutions”, • The contract with the selected company was signed in August 2015, and the system is planned to be developed by the end of 2016, • The project envisages development of 83 web services for 14 institutions, • The documents that are required for delivering the service to the citizens, and are electronically available, will be exchanged trough this system, rather than physically collected and carried from various institutions by the citizens, • The effects to be achieved by the implementation of this project are: saving time and money, improved communication between the institutions involved in the project, improved service quality and increased satisfaction of the citizens.

19. Institutions that are included in the “Interconnectivity and data exchange project” • Ministry of Labor and Social Policy (MLSP) • The Office for Certificates (births, marriages and deaths) (OC) • The Pension and Disability Fund (PDF) • The Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC) • The Ministry of Education and Science (MoES) • The State Employment Agency (SEA) • The Health Insurance Fund (HIF) • The State Cadastre (SC) • The Public Revenue Office (PRO) • The Agency for Financial Support of Agriculture and Rural Development (AFSARD) • The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) • The Central Registry (CR) • The National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia (NBRM) • The Courts of the Republic of Macedonia (CRM)

20. Thank you for your attention! Sanja Andovska, Conditional Cash Transfers Project