diff --git a/efsity/build.gradle.kts b/efsity/build.gradle.kts
index cc80e204..bb776e83 100644
--- a/efsity/build.gradle.kts
+++ b/efsity/build.gradle.kts
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ repositories {
 
 group = "org.smartregister"
 
-version = "2.3.6-SNAPSHOT"
+version = "2.3.7-SNAPSHOT"
 
 description = "fhircore-tooling (efsity)"
 
diff --git a/efsity/src/main/java/org/smartregister/command/PublishFhirResourcesCommand.java b/efsity/src/main/java/org/smartregister/command/PublishFhirResourcesCommand.java
index 71e71e7a..8d5f4bba 100644
--- a/efsity/src/main/java/org/smartregister/command/PublishFhirResourcesCommand.java
+++ b/efsity/src/main/java/org/smartregister/command/PublishFhirResourcesCommand.java
@@ -7,11 +7,9 @@
 import com.google.gson.JsonParser;
 import java.io.BufferedReader;
 import java.io.File;
-import java.io.FileInputStream;
 import java.io.FileReader;
 import java.io.FileWriter;
 import java.io.IOException;
-import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.io.InputStreamReader;
 import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.nio.file.Files;
@@ -105,13 +103,9 @@ public class PublishFhirResourcesCommand implements Runnable {
   public void run() {
     long start = System.currentTimeMillis();
     if (propertiesFile != null && !propertiesFile.isBlank()) {
-      try (InputStream inputProperties = new FileInputStream(propertiesFile)) {
-        Properties properties = new Properties();
-        properties.load(inputProperties);
-        setProperties(properties);
-      } catch (IOException e) {
-        throw new RuntimeException(e);
-      }
+
+      Properties properties = FctUtils.readPropertiesFile(propertiesFile);
+      setProperties(properties);
     }
     try {
       if (compositionFilePath != null) {
diff --git a/efsity/src/main/java/org/smartregister/command/TranslateCommand.java b/efsity/src/main/java/org/smartregister/command/TranslateCommand.java
index 678c5ff6..7f693fac 100644
--- a/efsity/src/main/java/org/smartregister/command/TranslateCommand.java
+++ b/efsity/src/main/java/org/smartregister/command/TranslateCommand.java
@@ -223,7 +223,7 @@ private static void mergeContent(
         objectMapper.readTree(Files.newBufferedReader(inputFilePath, StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
 
     // Load the translation properties
-    Properties translationProperties = getPropertiesFile(translationFile);
+    Properties translationProperties = FctUtils.readPropertiesFile(translationFile);
 
     // Traverse and update the JSON structure
     JsonNode updatedJson = updateJson(rootNode, translationProperties, locale, targetFields);
@@ -235,20 +235,6 @@ private static void mergeContent(
         String.format("Merged JSON saved to \u001b[36m%s\u001b[0m", inputFilePath.toString()));
   }
 
-  public static Properties getPropertiesFile(String propertiesFilePath) throws IOException {
-    Properties properties = new Properties();
-    // Read existing properties file, if it exists
-    if (Files.exists(Paths.get(propertiesFilePath))) {
-      try (FileInputStream fileInputStream = new FileInputStream(propertiesFilePath);
-          InputStreamReader reader =
-              new InputStreamReader(fileInputStream, StandardCharsets.UTF_8)) {
-
-        properties.load(reader);
-      }
-    }
-    return properties;
-  }
-
   private static JsonNode updateJson(
       JsonNode node, Properties translationProperties, String locale, Set<String> targetFields)
       throws NoSuchAlgorithmException {
@@ -416,7 +402,7 @@ private static void extractContent(
       throw new RuntimeException("Provide a valid `resourceFile` directory or file.");
     }
 
-    Properties existingProperties = getPropertiesFile(propertiesFilePath.toString());
+    Properties existingProperties = FctUtils.readPropertiesFile(propertiesFilePath.toString());
 
     // Merge existing properties with new properties
     existingProperties.putAll(textToHash);
diff --git a/efsity/src/test/java/org/smartregister/command/TranslateCommandTest.java b/efsity/src/test/java/org/smartregister/command/TranslateCommandTest.java
index 5a5d2d68..4b1d290a 100644
--- a/efsity/src/test/java/org/smartregister/command/TranslateCommandTest.java
+++ b/efsity/src/test/java/org/smartregister/command/TranslateCommandTest.java
@@ -4,9 +4,7 @@
 
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonNode;
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
-import java.io.FileInputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
-import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.nio.file.Files;
 import java.nio.file.Path;
@@ -15,6 +13,7 @@
 import java.util.Properties;
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.BeforeEach;
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
+import org.smartregister.util.FctUtils;
 
 public class TranslateCommandTest {
 
@@ -55,14 +54,11 @@ public void testRunExtract() throws IOException {
 
     assertDoesNotThrow(() -> translateCommand.run());
 
-    Properties existingProperties = new Properties();
-    InputStream defaultPropertiesInput = new FileInputStream(defaultPropertiesPath.toFile());
-    existingProperties.load(defaultPropertiesInput);
+    Properties existingProperties =
+        FctUtils.readPropertiesFile(defaultPropertiesPath.toFile().getAbsolutePath());
 
-    Properties newProperties = new Properties();
-    InputStream tempDefaultPropertiesInput =
-        new FileInputStream(tempDefaultPropertiesPath.toFile());
-    newProperties.load(tempDefaultPropertiesInput);
+    Properties newProperties =
+        FctUtils.readPropertiesFile(tempDefaultPropertiesPath.toFile().getAbsolutePath());
 
     // Compare the contents of the two files
     assertEquals(existingProperties, newProperties, "File contents are similar.");
diff --git a/efsity/src/test/resources/strings_fr.properties b/efsity/src/test/resources/strings_fr.properties
index 9a59bf0d..44a1b58d 100644
--- a/efsity/src/test/resources/strings_fr.properties
+++ b/efsity/src/test/resources/strings_fr.properties
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 #Thu Nov 02 09:51:17 EAT 2023
 b989b9027fad22ec89690367614e2da6=Raison de l?examen abdominal
-f89de0a4cd9317a2987dfc2546e2da5e=Examen abdominal effectué
+f89de0a4cd9317a2987dfc2546e2da5e=Examen abdominal effectué
 bafd7322c6e97d25b6299b5d6fe8920b=Non
 93cba07454f06a4a960172bbd6e2a435=Oui