We want to eliminate cash payments, says iGA Chief

Manama : Government offices in the Kingdom might soon switch to a new cashless approach by introducing cash-to-voucher printing machines. 

“This will get rid of issues such as missing money or disputes etc. and will bring a huge transformation for the government,”  iGA Chief Executive Mohamed Ali AlQaed told DT News. 

However, no specific time-frame has been fixed for the project, which is now in its initial phase. 

Feasibility study of the project, according to the iGA Chief Executive, is ongoing. 

“We want to eliminate cash payment in the government offices, we have thought of ways of achieving that,” said AlQaed.  

One of the reasons for the introducing cash-to-voucher exchange kiosks, according to the iGA Chief Executive, is the presence of many customers who do not have either a debit or a credit card and “can only pay by cash”. 

“They can use the kiosks to buy a voucher which can then be used to make a payment at a government office,” he said.

In this regard, he also pointed out that IGA has made progress in updating its e-payment mechanisms. “Last year we launched a new system to deal with the ePayments which helped us improve the way we deliver the service. Earlier the authority had to pay a hefty amount to a private sector company for maintaining the service. So we redeveloped it to introduce payments via vouchers, mobile apps etc.,” he said.

AlQaed further said the authority was successful in implementing various cost-cutting measures. “We have had multiple projects that directly or indirectly promoted efficiency and cut costs.”

ebooking of pre-employment check-up, he said, was one such project that turned out to be highly successful along with the cloud server initiative.