Automated solution for fishing inspections management (SATI)

Inside the Ministry of Agriculture, the Department of Fisheries is responsible for managing fishing quotas and complying with regulations enacted by France and the European Union (EU). However, in early 2006, the department had a dispute with the EU for several reasons; one was for not meeting European Union real-time reporting requirements. In addition, inspectors had difficulty in efficiently monitoring the sale and capture of fish which cause some undersized fish to be sold in French markets. The solution allows Department agents to input inspection results into an XML-based form on the Tablet PCs that they carry during inspections. The data is then uploaded to a centralized portal. If agents don’t have access to a Tablet PC, they can digitally input results using any computer with any browser with an Internet connection. More than 1000 controls per month

Policy Context

This solution is the answer to the : The ruling of the European Court of Justice of 12 July 2005 (IP/05/917) Concil Regulation n° 2847/93 of 12 october 1993 Concil Regulation n° 2371/2002 of 20 décember 2002 Commission Regulation n° 1042/2006 of 7 juillet 2006

Description of target users and groups

The Department of Fisheries has no internal inspectors. All the inspectors doing controls for the department for fisheries belong to several ministries as Ministry of defense, Ministry of interior, Ministry of Finance (custom service and fraud services), Ministry of equipment, … There is more than 800 inspectors doing controls, all distributed over the country, but mainly on the coast. This group of users is in charge of collecting the data. An other group of users are from the service in charge of the controls inside the Department of fisheries. This group is in charge of the global solution, but also in charge of the integrity of the data to be able to produce each month, quarter and year, some reports and statistics. Also, some European inspectors have also an access to SATI.

Description of the way to implement the initiative

RAD method, very few steering committee but efficient, emulation on a common project. Efficient partnership between a private company (Microsoft) and the State which wanted to make a success of this challenge Multi-channel issues: The solution supports online and offline mode to fill in controls. Online mode: the inspectors use a Web browser (full HTML mode, no ActiveX or download or specific browser is requiered) to fill in the controls and save them on the portal. They can also access all published information and the controls (if they have grant access on the controls) Offline mode: some of the inspectors have Tablet PC to fill in the controls. On the Tablet PC, the inspected operator can sign the control. After the end of the day (early if he has a network access), he just uploads the controls to the web portal. Also, if a new version of the control is available, he can download the new version on his Tablet PC.

Main results, benefits and impacts

more than 1,000 controls (ground, sea and air) submitted per month since the first of January. Per year, we could expect more than 18,000 controls. The statistics and reports are generated each quarter and published on the portal, only 1 or 2 days after the end of the quarter. In addition, the Department of Fisheries can predict potential infractions, focusing its inspections and ensuring that one of France’s most important natural resources is well protected. Innovation: It is the first cross ministerial solution using tablet PCs or web browser to submit and centralized controls. The solution is also integrated into the unix based security system (integration). Multi language is supported.

Return on investment

Return on investment: Not applicable / Not available

Track record of sharing

Some other solutions in other ministries are currently in development, based on the architecture we built. We will also build news similar projects for the Tuna Inspections management, Fish Sales documents management, ...

Lessons learnt

- Possibility of quickly setting up a common solution in various organizational and technical environments. - Simplicity is not contrary with the effectiveness. - Interoperability is not a vain word. Scope: National