E-Government initiatives are expected to make some strides this year but a three year old project to automate Customs processing has foundered.

Community and Cultural Affairs Minister Randolph Horton, sitting in for Finance Minister Eugene Cox, told the House of Assembly yesterday of progress being made in bringing a number of functions online to better serve the customer.

The Post Office which now has a new Postmaster General, George Outerbridge, will undergo a comprehensive review to make it more competitive. In the meantime Government is looking at developing a web-site for the post office and installing Internet kiosks at the Hamilton Post Office and the sub post offices.

And the department of Social Insurance will also get its own web-site where customers can get statements online, the Minister said.

The plans are to have the web-site up and running by the end of the fiscal year. Offline customers will have to contact the department directly for their statements.

Mr. Horton also declared that a test program for filing and paying payroll taxes online had been a success.

That project is now expected to be rolled out between July this year and 2004. Taxpayers will be able to file and pay their payroll taxes as well as land tax online.

And a more "e-friendly" approach should go ahead at the Register of Companies this year, he said.

"Our ultimate goal is to develop the capacity to receive and process all applications and accompanying fees electronically," Mr. Horton said.

And the two million documents making up the Company Register will be physically scanned and uploaded - a project that should take a year, the Minister said.

At the end of it all the entire Company Register should be accessible online with a 24 hour search function.

At Customs, Government plans to investigate electronic duty payment as part of a pre-clearance scheme for "compliant" travelers.

But its Customs Automated Processing System (CAPS), which entered its pilot stage some three years ago, has been beset with problems.

Mr. Horton said that Government "will work hard towards a conclusion in the coming year".

Opposition Leader Grant Gibbons lambasted the project as a "very sad story". Between one and two million dollars had already gone down the drain, he noted.

"It's not just taxpayers money wasted here," he said. "It's also business time and business effort... It's been a disaster from square one."

And referring to plans to have computer makers IBM start the project from the beginning, Dr. Gibbons said that with an estimated additional $3 million price tab "a lot of people are saying it can't be done."

Plans to revolutionise customs processing with the CAPS system were announced in 1999. The aim was to improve service, reduce costs, free up paperwork by allowing customs declarations to be done electronically through the Customs' department web-site. Businesses were generally supportive of the idea which was expected to improve efficiency and yield cost savings.

But UK contractor Grosvenor International Systems could not deliver on the $3.5 million project and Customs terminated the contract. Last year IBM/Bermuda Computer Services was awarded the contract to complete the project.

"By the middle of the year we'll be up and running," promised Mr. Horton last night.