Home Affairs plans overhaul of Excel-based FOI case handling

The Department of Home Affairs is preparing to replace its outdated, Excel-based systems to tackle a growing backlog of freedom of information (FOI) requests.

The department is seeking market input on a new case management system, calling its current manual and email-based workflows “inefficient, prone to error, and unfit for high-volume, time-sensitive work.”

In a request for information, Home Affairs said it is grappling with rising caseloads, increasing error rates, and a growing inability to meet its legislative obligations under current systems.

To address the issue, the department is seeking an end-to-end platform to manage both FOI requests and its privacy operations, including functions such as impact assessments, complaints, and data breach handling.

The platform is intended to improve processes such as online lodgement, case visibility, workflow, information retrieval, and redaction, as well as enable secure file transfer.

Any chosen solution would integrate – natively or via an API – with Home Affairs’ core technology systems, including its mainframe-based visa management platforms, client portals and SAP modules.

Home Affairs receives the highest number of FOI requests out of federal government agencies, averaging around 14,000 finalised requests annually for the past five years – a number that peaked at over 17,000 in 2022-23.

The majority of these are personal FOI requests, typically seeking access to or amendments of personal information related to visa and citizenship processing.

Others involve detention-related material, including case files and even CCTV footage.

Meanwhile, the privacy operation manages and coordinates privacy policies, including the notifiable data breach (NDB) scheme, primarily working with internal staff and Australian Border Force officers.

The operation’s Excel-based management practice, in particular, was noted for its instability “due to the volume of matter recording and the inability to track matters from beginning to end”, according to a request for information document.