[3.9.2024] By introducing software for case management, the Bremen Office for Social Services wants to ensure that incoming applications are recorded centrally in the future. During an inspection, several hundred documents were found in the data waste that should not have been disposed of yet.
When checking data waste containers, the Office for Social Services in Bremen found 432 documents and papers that should not have been disposed of according to the principles of record keeping. This is according to a report that Bremen’s Social Affairs Senator Claudia Schilling has now presented.
According to the Senator, appropriate consequences will be drawn from this and, among other things, a separate case management system will be introduced in the Office for Social Services. This is intended to ensure that in future all applications are recorded electronically and assigned to a person in the case processing department.
According to the Social Senator, the reason for the inspection of the data waste containers was the suspicion of fraud against two employees. The office management wanted to ensure that documents that could be relevant in connection with the criminal charges had not been disposed of in the data waste. Instead, however, documents from the case files of two employees that were not related to the fraud charges were found there. In 219 of the 432 cases, these were documents relating to payments that are automatically generated by the computer software as soon as changes are made or payments are initiated. Some of these should have been sent to the benefit recipients, others should have been kept on file.
Due to the discovery of the files in the data waste, all 95 data waste bins in all six social centers and the two central specialist services were checked unannounced at the beginning of August. According to current knowledge, no documents were found that led to delayed or missed payments to benefit recipients, the Social Senator concluded. (bw)
Keywords: Document management, Bremen, archiving, social services, case processing
