A National Audit of the overseas operations of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has criticised DFAT’s Consular Management Information System (CMIS) and highlighted the need for improved data entry.

The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO)   audit of Delivery of Australia's Consular Services, found that the “(CMIS) is outdated, and efforts to replace it have been an ongoing process since 2003.”

“CMIS has a limited ability to provide performance reporting information, and is inconsistently used. For example, in a sample of 20 prisoner cases, ANAO analysis showed that the ‘date of the last consular visit’ field was not completed in 30 per cent of the cases, while for those cases for which the field was completed, the recorded date varied by an average of 588 days from the date identified in the case notes. As such, CMIS can offer little assurance to management as to the state of a post’s workload and the service standards delivered at posts,” the report notes.

DFAT agreed that it must work to improve “the recording of key consular case management information in the relevant case management system.”

DFAT was praised for an improved ability to respond to crisis events, such as the MH17 disaster in Ukraine in July 2014.

The ANAO also criticised the low uptake of the department’s Smart Traveller program used to register with DFAT’s Online Register of Australians Overseas, in order to make it easier to track down Australians in an emergency.

The fact that only 20% of those who begin the process of registering reach the end, was highlighted as an implied criticism of the usability of the website. DFAT has flagged that it plans to make this system easier to use.

The ANAO Report is available HERE