The Saint Lucia Central Statistical Office has ushered in several Information and Communications Technology (ICT) changes.

Director of Statistics Edwin St. Catherine said since the introduction of the Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing system at the Central Statistical Office, there has been a reduction of the time lag between data collection and data analysis.

He explained that the traditional pen and paper practices used when retrieving and compiling data made staff duties more difficult, however, with the recent introduction of the technologically driven CAPI  system, major changes have already been witnessed.

“The primary reason that we introduced it is that we have always had a problem with thousands of paper questionares lying around the office which we could not immediately dispose of because theuy contained data interviews that we had done at various points, so the issue with paper, printing alot of questionnaires was one that plagued us severly for many years and also the issue of the management of electronic data - making it easier to collect and manage [information] and to manage the people around that process.”

According to St. Catherine, there is no limit to those who now benefit from the new system.

“By streamlining, improving the process of collecting data via the use of tablets and through the internet as we are doing now eliminating paper, making the whole process environmentally friendly in the process, I think that there are many benefits for the lay man in terms of a quicker delivery of statistical results.”

Staff at the department acknowledge the system for  adding a stronger element of certainty to procedures.