8th April 2020
NSW Office of Emergency Management and Civica work together to enable Councils using Civica’s Recover disaster management software to submit their claims via an online portal
Sydney, 7 April 2020. Civica, a global leader in software for public and community services, is pleased to be assisting bushfire and flood affected councils in NSW to speed up the vital claims process for damaged public assets. Working closely with the NSW Office of Emergency Management (OEM), Civica has developed an online portal to enable a council’s outdoor workforce to record restoration works against essential public assets following a declared Natural Disaster. The collected data and images are compliant with both state and Commonwealth requirements, enabling an integrated information capture and submission process for Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA) claims in NSW.
With large numbers of claims from NSW councils, the OEM has entered into an agreement with Civica using the Recover software to allow Councils to submit their claims online. Recover is Civica’s mobile and cloud solution for damage collection and preparation of funding submissions to repair damaged essential public assets following a declared natural disaster event. A key feature of the solution is that all data required for assessment including photographic evidence, ledgers and attachments can all be submitted and viewed by the assessor immediately.
As of 6 April 2020, NSW Councils who have used Recover to collect Emergency Works and Damages for the 2020 NSW bushfire (AGRN871) and flooding (AGRN898) events will be able to submit data and images to Transport for New South Wales (TfNSW) and Public Works Advisory (PWA) using the online portal. These agencies will then have the capability to review submissions, approve, or seek more information on each request.
A spokesperson from the NSW OEM says “This portal will make the process of submitting data much easier. The benefit of communications happening in real time means the processing of submissions can be completed quickly. We know this is important to our stakeholders within councils”.
”In these difficult times it’s heartening to see how our solutions are making things just a little bit easier for councils” says Brett Barningham, Civica’s Managing Director, Local and State Government. “To date there is no other mobile solution in the marketplace that supports the state and federal requirements for the capture and reporting of damage to essential public assets. Over the past decade our team has worked closely with Recover users at councils to ensure the solution fits their requirements.”
For NSW Councils not using Recover and affected by the recent fire and flood events, the NSW Government and Civica has extended their offer to use the software to improve dataflow and communications if needed in future severe weather events.