Implication Of Record Managers

Records Management Journal, Vol. 10, No. 1, April 2000 © Aslib, The Association for Information Management. All rights reserved. Except as otherwise permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Records and archives as a basis for good government: implications and challenges for records managers and archivists in Africa JUSTUS WAMUKOYA

Abstract This article looks at the need to manage public sector records as evidence and as a means of controlling how government resources are used, as well as a vital source of information for empowering the people of Africa. The author examines the role of records and of record keeping within the context of three distinct domains – business, accountability and culture – and the contribution of records managers and archivists to the process of democratic governance.

Introduction During the 1980s and 1990s most of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa embraced structural adjustment programmes (SAPs), widely seen by the global donor community as the remedy for economic hardships experienced by these countries. They also saw SAPs as providing the best opportunity to implement public sector reforms in order to promote better use of public resources and better accountability by governments to their citizens. The theme of this article is the role of records and archives as a basis for good government. It looks at the need to manage public sector records as evidence and as a means of controlling how government resources are used, and also as a vital source of information for empowering the people. Record keeping is a fundamental and core activity of public sector management. Without records there can be no accountability and no rule of Records Management Journal, vol. 10, no. 1, April 2000, pp. 23–33 Aslib, The Association for Information Management Staple Hall, Stone House Court, London EC3A 7PB Tel: +44 (0) 171 903 0000, Fax: +44 (0) 171 903 0011 Email: [email protected], WWW: http://www.aslib.co.uk/aslib

Records Management Journal, Vol. 10, No. 1, April 2000 © Aslib, The Association for Information Management. All rights reserved. Except as otherwise permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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law. Public servants require information in order to discharge their official duties and responsibilities efficiently, effectively, and in a transparent manner. Records represent a major source of information, and are almost the only reliable and legally verifiable data source that can serve as evidence of decisions, actions and transactions in the public service. As Dr Anne Thurston notes, “if governments are to be held accountable for their actions and if the public is to have legally enforceable rights of access to government information, then it is essential to ensure that evidence is accurately and securely preserved. Without reliable, authentic documentary evidence, government cannot demonstrate to society that it has used state resources responsibility and that it has fulfilled its mandate to the people. Economic crime cannot be proven, and citizens rights cannot be protected”.1 The changing role of records and archives The records and archives professions are not static by nature. Like all other information professions they have been changing constantly with regard to the functions they render to society. Initially, records and archives services were associated with the ruling elite, and archival institutions served as depositories of important documents and titles of the state. With the passage of time, these institutions became depositories for records with cultural and historical value. Today, records and archives have acquired new uses and functions, increasingly serving as the guardians of the rights of the people and of institutions, public as well as private. Records and archives also play an important role in specific areas of national development by providing recorded information which is essential in the formulation of national development policies and plans. In developing countries, records and archives are particularly important since they assist governments maintain a consistent pattern in policy formulation and implementation. Among their other uses, records and archives also act as raw materials for research in various disciplines including science research, which is an important ingredient of socio-economic development. Therefore, the uses and functions of records and archives can be summed up as ranging from cultural, historical, legal, economic and scientific to promotion of good governance and accountability. Definition of the term good government According to the World Bank, the term good government is broadly defined as the manner in which power is exercised in the management and utilisation of a country’s economic and social resources for national development. Good government encompasses political legitimacy, accountability, transparency, openness and the rule of law.2

24 Aslib, The Association for Information Management Staple Hall, Stone House Court, London EC3A 7PB Tel: +44 (0) 171 903 0000, Fax: +44 (0) 171 903 0011 Email: [email protected], WWW: http://www.aslib.co.uk/aslib

Records Management Journal, Vol. 10, No. 1, April 2000 © Aslib, The Association for Information Management. All rights reserved. Except as otherwise permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher.

April 2000

Records and archives as a basis for good government

Meanwhile, John Healey and Mark Robinson observe that accountability is among the most important foundations of good government. Firstly, it means the sharing of the control and purposes of political power, implying a relationship of reciprocity between the rulers and the ruled. Secondly, it recognises the existence of constitutional devices to ensure that those in power are held accountable for their actions. Thirdly, it refers to the ability of interest groups and associations within civil society to curb the hegemony (political domination) of the state.3 Peter Blunt illustrates the apparent link between governmental accountability and recorded information by stating that “bureaucratic accountability and transparency are heavily dependent upon the availability and validity of information”.4 The three domains associated with record keeping For archivists and records managers an appropriate place to begin is by exploring the issue of why we create records and why we need to manage them. This question leads us to another equally important question, what are our obligations as archivists and records managers in relation to record keeping? There are probably a myriad answers to these questions but, in the view of this author, the need for records and the role of record keeping operates in three distinct domains. The three domains have recently been defined by information experts as comprising: the business domain, the accountability domain, and the cultural domain.5 The business domain The business domain requires that records must be produced and maintained to support the essential activities of the business process. Therefore, firstly, the records establish precedent and decision-makers must draw upon these to ensure consistency and reliability of decision making. Secondly, the evidential nature of records demonstrates that the actions were indeed carried out and the records thus provide evidence of the conduct of business. Thirdly, records have no longer term business needs which help to provide continuity in specific business functions and activities. Such records not only serve long-term reference needs by providing a record of the successes or failures of past business transactions, they also ensure that we do not re-invent the wheel. The accountability domain The accountability domain determines whether organisations or individuals have met defined organisational, business, legal, social or moral obligations. Records as evidence therefore underpin all relationships whether social, legal, moral or business. Governments need to maintain

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Records Management Journal, Vol. 10, No. 1, April 2000 © Aslib, The Association for Information Management. All rights reserved. Except as otherwise permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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accurate and reliable records as a tool to ensure just and fair treatment of their citizens. But as research has shown, the chaotic state of public records in many African countries, and the near collapse of record keeping systems in some of the countries makes it virtually impossible to determine responsibility for official actions and to hold individuals accountable for their actions. This failure to manage records properly has been a contributory factor to the growing menace of corruption in the running of public affairs and the loss of public confidence in the justice system. On the other hand, proper maintenance of records and the proper provision of information empowers citizens to exercise their civil rights, providing them with information and data which they can use to question or criticise government actions, and hold government officials accountable. Provision of accurate and reliable and verifiable information also helps them to detect and prevent corruption or other fraudulent dealings which undermine the efficient and effective provision of services by public servants. The cultural domain The cultural domain demands that records are preserved and made available to society for posterity and for historical research. Since records document organisational history over time, these provide the basis for writing our cultural and national history. It is this sense of history that has for centuries motivated archivists to be concerned about the survival of official records ensuring that those with enduring value are transferred and retained permanently in the archives as part of the collective human experience and memory. While archivists in most African countries have been adept at preserving the historical record, their role has continued to remain rather passive as concerns the management of current records. This situation is not likely to improve or change given that in many of these countries, national archival institutions, which have statutory responsibility for government records, have either had their budgetary allocations cut or they continue to receive very modest increases in their annual budgets. This overall decline in state funding has made it impossible for archival institutions to meet their statutory obligations. The issue of inadequate financial resources is therefore one reason very few archival institutions have actually been able to play an active role in the management of current and semi-current records which are often held in ministries and departments. In many cases, these institutions lack adequate human and financial resource capacity to effectively play a pro-active role in the management of records while in their current and semi-current stages. This failure to manage records from creation to disposition not only weakens accountability but also has serious consequences for good governance. Among the consequences is the inability by citizens or their representatives

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Records Management Journal, Vol. 10, No. 1, April 2000 © Aslib, The Association for Information Management. All rights reserved. Except as otherwise permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher.

April 2000

Records and archives as a basis for good government

through parliamentary Public Accounts Committees (PAC) and Public Investment Committees (PIC) to effectively evaluate audit government programmes by both having access to relevant, reliable and complete information. This view is corroborated by information from the World Bank which, in 1996, cited poor record keeping in the Gambia as one of the factors which contributed to the lack of transparency in the revenue collection process.6 Such situations, Pino Akotia suggests, can be redeemed through integrating accounting and record keeping systems. He notes that “public records if well-managed have the potential of providing a meaningful resource by which both the executive and the government could present themselves as honest, well-meaning and accountable.”7 The need to manage records from creation to disposition If records are to meet the requirements for accountability and good governance, their management must cover the whole extent of their existence i.e. from creation to disposition. For many years, the life cycle model served this purpose quite well until some archivists somewhere pointed out what they considered its major weakness. They disagreed with the assumption on which the life-cycle concept was based i.e. that record entities went through a series of separate and distinct stages, with each stage ending with disposition. They, therefore, sought to correct what they considered a misrepresentation. To articulate this general concern, Jay Atherton, in the mid 1980s, proposed in an article in Archivaria8 to replace the life cycle concept with the continuum model. The records continuum model focuses on the management of records as a continuous process. It sees the management of records in terms of the business process or the functions and activities of the organisation which the records document. In other words, the continuum model addresses the issue of the type of records that need to be captured to provide evidence of a particular function or activity, the systems and procedures needed to ensure that the records are captured and maintained, how long the records should be kept to meet business needs and to fulfil other requirements, how they should be stored and who should have access to them.9 The continuum model is today the subject of a lively and on-going debate particularly in North America and Australia involving distinguished names in the information profession such as Frank Upward, Sue McKemmish, David Bearman and Barbara Reed. However, in developing countries including ESARBICA countries, the continuum concept, like its precursor the life-cycle concept, is likely to remain just a concept. Record keeping and good governance Records are important to every aspect of the governance process. The key governance objectives cannot be attained without the availability of

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Records Management Journal, Vol. 10, No. 1, April 2000 © Aslib, The Association for Information Management. All rights reserved. Except as otherwise permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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certain types of records to support them. To strengthen and safeguard the rule of law, for instance, proper legislative records, court records, police records as well as prison records must be maintained. In order to demonstrate transparency and accountability there must be proper accounting records, procurement records, tax records, customs records, electoral records, etc. Similarly, pension records, land records, property records, social security records and birth and death records are essential to the protection of citizens’ rights and their other entitlements. Meanwhile, provision of services to citizens depends on the availability of various types of records including policy records, case records e.g. hospital, school, personnel and accounting records. The failure to manage these records by organisations, particularly public organisations, has greatly undermined the governance process in many African countries. Whereas the scale of the problem may vary from one country to another, on the whole bad governance remains a matter of serious concern among citizens of these countries. We all know that frequent loss of court files seriously undermines the efficient administration of justice causing unnecessary adjournment of court hearings. Court clerks, land registry clerks, police officers and insurance agents often use the excuse of missing files or incomplete records to solicit bribes from unsuspecting members of the public before services can be rendered. Unfortunately, a majority of those who are asked for ‘Chai’ or ‘TKK’ as the vice is known in Kenya are often those who live below the poverty line. In many African countries, government payrolls are inflated with ghost workers due to the poor state of personnel records. Also too familiar is the story of delayed pension payments due to unavailability or incompleteness of pension records. Too frequently, citizens complain about inflated water, electricity and telephone bills which are the result of poor record keeping. Impact of technology on record keeping and good governance Traditionally, records have been created and maintained in paper form. This is still largely the case in many African countries and certainly in the majority of ESARBICA countries. As a result, records managers and archivists in the region have chiefly been accustomed to working with paper records so much so that there has been a tendency to perceive the records and archives professions in the context of a paper-based environment. Our training in these professions has also tended to focus a great deal on records in traditional formats. The reality is that emerging technologies are rapidly changing the environment in which we all work. At the same time, the advent of new technologies and their growing adoption and use in organisations is rapidly changing the way those organisations work, make decisions,

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Records Management Journal, Vol. 10, No. 1, April 2000 © Aslib, The Association for Information Management. All rights reserved. Except as otherwise permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher.

April 2000

Records and archives as a basis for good government

communicate and even the way they document their activities. Therefore, as records managers and archivists, we must start paying much greater attention to information in other formats, particularly electronic formats. Similarly, we should pay attention to the relationship between paper and electronic records. The period between the 1960s and 1980s witnessed some of the most revolutionary technological advances in computer technology. Since then, computers have been introduced in both public and private sector business operations on a scale that was never anticipated. As a result, many records managers and archivists are now increasingly having to deal with or provide professional advice on issues related to records in electronic formats of which they themselves have little or no experience. The dawn of the electronic age has inevitably created new challenges which records managers and archivists must urgently address. For example, who creates and who takes responsibility for capturing and filing the electronic record; what procedures and standards need to be observed to ensure that information in electronic media is accurate, complete, reliable and authentic; and what conditions need to be provided for electronic records to be admissible as evidence in a court of law. These issues and others have major implications for good governance and accountability. It is therefore important that record systems whether manual or automated should be planned in ways that meet requirements for good governance and accountability. What is needed to strengthen good governance As earlier stated, record keeping is a fundamental activity of public administration. Records underpin all aspects of public administration and public servants need to have access to accurate, reliable, timely and complete information in order to implement government programmes and to provide efficient services to citizens. In many African countries, much of the information required by public servants to discharge their duties is inaccessible because of the huge backlogs of non-current, paperbased records which are to be found in most ministries and departments. This is a situation most in the ESARBICA region are quite familiar with. The first step records managers and archivists need to take is to clear these backlogs of non-current records that are no longer useful for current business needs from ministries and departments. Such action besides facilitating access to valuable information will serve as a starting point for restructuring existing systems. Once this is successfully accomplished, the next step should be to develop a comprehensive strategy for record keeping. The strategy must, of necessity, take account of the need to manage records based on the life-cycle and continuum principles. The strategy should aim to establish physical as well as intellectual control

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over all records created within the public service. Such a strategy should specifically address the need for a legal and regulatory framework, an appropriate organisational structure, comprehensive records control systems and procedures, awareness raising, relevant training and the provision of appropriate physical storage facilities. Most countries in the ESARBICA region do have some form of archival legislation statutes to regulate archival activities. However, many pieces of the legislation have been in place for many years without revision and it is time these were up-dated; firstly, to provide for effective co-ordination of records policy throughout the different phases of the records continuum and, secondly, to cater for electronic records and governance issues emanating from record keeping. The question of organisational placement of the national archives within the civil service structure is not new. While it is not easy for archivists to influence government decision making as to where to place the national archives in the government structure, they should strive to find allies among senior civil servants who are likely to speak on their behalf on matters such as this. Ideally, archival services should come under key central ministries with over-arching responsibilities across government. Records and archival agencies should be accorded appropriate status in the public service and should be allocated adequate financial and human resources to enable them to carry out their responsibilities. Other archival institutions may wish to learn from the experience of the Kenya National Archives and Documentation Service which has been able to receive increased funding from the Government by having strong allies in the Treasury as well as the parent ministry of Home Affairs and National Heritage. Archival institutions must also work closely with government agencies responsible for personnel matters to provide training opportunities and clearly defined career paths for records staff as a way of retaining staff within the public service. The role of records managers and archivists must be to ensure that records systems operating in various departments and ministries are well structured. A properly structured records system is one which ensures that the filing of correspondence and related papers follow an appropriate filing system, that papers and files are properly indexed, the movement of papers is properly controlled, and an appropriate scheduling programme exists. A comprehensive records management programme also needs to ensure that policies and procedures are established to manage both paper and electronic records. In Africa, the generally low level of staff manning registries is indicative of the low status public servants accord record keeping. It is the duty of records managers and archivists to make public servants and the general public aware of the importance of information in general and records in

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Records Management Journal, Vol. 10, No. 1, April 2000 © Aslib, The Association for Information Management. All rights reserved. Except as otherwise permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher.

April 2000

Records and archives as a basis for good government

particular in supporting decision making, accountability and good governance. They should therefore strive to develop and nurture a culture of record keeping in all institutions, public as well as private. This can be achieved through a combination of methods including workshops, seminars, conference, public lectures, exhibitions, community projects outreach programmes, etc. Training is an important component of modern management. Records personnel at all levels require appropriate training, not only to acquire new knowledge and skills, but also to gain confidence in what they do. Users too need awareness training to acquaint them with existing programmes and how to exploit them to their benefit. Such training must be relevant and on-going. It must include both formal and informal approaches such as on the job training. A majority of the records managers and archivists in the ESARBICA region received their training abroad. However, in view of the hard economic times, African countries can ill afford to send many students to study abroad. Archival institutions too can ill afford to send staff on overseas courses. There is a handful of schools that offer training in the region. Regional bodies such as ESARBICA should consider providing support to these schools in the areas of curricula, professional development, teaching materials, etc. Finally, if records are to remain accurate, reliable, authentic and complete, they must be stored in an environment that guarantees safety and security. Conclusion Records are the cornerstone of a just and democratic society. It is for this reason that people, as well as organisations, turn to records for the protection of their rights. Poor records keeping on the other hand seriously undermines the administration of justice and should be avoided, through professional intervention by records managers and archivists. The contribution of records managers and archivists to the democratic governance process should be to ensure that the right records are created and maintained to provide evidence of actions and transactions and to make these available when required, so that the key players and actors, entrusted to safeguard the ‘public good’, can be held accountable for their actions. In Kenya, the controller and auditor-general has always made it a point to include in his report the failure by Ministries and Departments to maintain comprehensive records of decisions made and the destruction of certain essential records without proper authorisation. In a democracy, records are of the people, by the people, for the people. Therefore, at the dawning of the new millennium the expectation of the general public will be for public agencies to be more open and accountable in their decision making. To support these aspirations, it will be the duty

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Records Management Journal, Vol. 10, No. 1, April 2000 © Aslib, The Association for Information Management. All rights reserved. Except as otherwise permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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of records managers and archivists to establish and maintain efficient and effective record systems that will enable necessary records to be created to safeguard both individual and corporate rights. They must start now to help and encourage public organisations develop an appropriate management framework supported by policies, procedures, standards and controls to ensure that records are created and managed in a manner that promotes accountability and good government. References 1. Thurston, A. Accountability in public sector reform and financial management. Paper (unpublished) presented at the Prem Seminar, May, 1998, p. 1. 2. The World Bank, governance and development. Washington DC: The World Bank, 1992, p. 1. 3. Healey, J and Robinson, M. Democracy, governance and economic policy: Sub-Saharan Africa in comparative perspective. Overseas Development Institute (ODI), Regent’s College, 1992, p. 160. 4. Blunt, P. Cultural relativism, good governance and sustainable human development. Public Administration and Development, Vol. 15, 1995, p. 7. 5. Alan R. Individual’s responsibility for archival records. Informaa Quarterly, Vol. 15, No. 1, February 1999, p. 5. 6. Dia, M. Africa’s management in the 1990s and beyond: reconciling indigenous and transplanted institutions. The World Bank, 1996, pp. 46 & 47. 7. Akotia, P. Managing public sector financial records in The Gambia: implications for good government. Information Development, Vol. 11, No. 4, Dec. 1995, pp. 206–210. 8. Atherton, J. From life-cycle to continuum: some thoughts on the records management and archives relationship. Archivaria, Winter 1985–86. 9. Kennedy, J and Schauder, C. Records management: a guide to corporate record keeping. 2nd ed. Longman, 1998, p. 10. Author Dr Justus Wamukoya is a Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of Archives and Records Management in the Faculty of Information Sciences at Moi

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Records Management Journal, Vol. 10, No. 1, April 2000 © Aslib, The Association for Information Management. All rights reserved. Except as otherwise permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher.

April 2000

Records and archives as a basis for good government

University, Kenya. He holds an M.A, a PhD (Archival Studies) from University College London and an MLitt. from the University of Edinburgh. He was recently appointed a Member of the Public Archives Advisory Council, Kenya. He is also currently a lead consultant for the International Records Management Trust on the Tanzania Records Management Project, and a researcher on the World Bank/ Danish Trust Fund Information for Accountability Workshops Project. Previously, Dr Wamukoya has served as an Educational Adviser on a project jointly sponsored by the International Records Management Trust and the International Council on Archives to develop training modules for a study programme. He has published a number of articles in regional as well as international journals. Dr Justus Wamukoya, Faculty of Information Sciences, Moi University, PO Box 3900, Eldoret, KENYA. Tel: + (0321) 43720. Fax: + (0321) 43047.

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