Educational Session

Governance &
R
Records
d Management
M t

Emerson O. St. G. Bryan

Information and Document Management Officer
Caribbean Regional
g Negotiating
g g Machineryy (CRNM)
( )
2008 February 27
 Session Outline:

First Things, First…

What is a Record
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Using Records to repel Corruption

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Electronic Records
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10/04/2010
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First Things, First…

 How can poor recordkeeping affect
governance?
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 Notable examples of information mismanagement:
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ƒ HM Treasury Data Leak (UK)

ƒ Enron--Arthur Anderson (US)
Enron
ƒ ‘Cuban Light Bulb Scandal’ & ‘Sandals Whitehouse’ (Jamaica)
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ƒ ABC Highway & ‘Hardwood’ Situations (Barbados)

ƒ Piarco International Airport (Trinidad & Tobago)
ƒ Missing Millions Scandal (Belize)
ƒ FOI legislation
l i l ti n (Antigua
(Anti &B Barbuda,
b d B Belize,
liz JJamaica,
i St St. Vin
Vincent
nt & th
the
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Grenadines, and Trinidad & Tobago)

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What is a Record?
 Record

Can be defined as "Information created, received and

maintained as evidence and information by an organization or
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person, in
i pursuance off llegall obligations
bli ti or iin th
the ttransaction
ti off
business". (ISO 15489-1, 2001)
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All recorded information, regardless of media or physical

characteristics, made or received and maintained by an
organization or institution in pursuance of its legal obligations
or in
i the
h transaction
i off iits b
business.
i IIn machine-readable
hi d bl
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records/ archives, two or more data fields in predetermined

order and treated as a unit. (International Council on Archives
General International Standard Archival Description (ISAD(G))
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1993
10/04/2010
 What is a Record?
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Records are
recorded
information giving
evidence,
id and
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serving some kind of

purpose, regardless
of medium or
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characteristics.
 Record Life Cycle Concept

Records are current from their creation and for as long as

their administrative value remains at its highest. After
which they become semisemi--current when their
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administrative value declines and references to them

become irregular and less frequent. When a record has
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ceased to have any administrative value at all it is non

non--
current after which it reaches the disposition stage, where
it is either destroyed or if it has any other value that is
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consistent with the archives policy, placed for permanent

preservation in the archives. This is known as the Records
Lif C
Life Cycle
l CConcept.
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 Records Life Cycle

Diagram illustrating
the Records Life Cycle
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 Anatomy of a Record
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Basic Content
Principles of
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Context
Records
Management
g Structure
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 Anatomy of a Record

Content is what the record says.

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Structure relates to both the appearance and arrangement of the content

((for example,
p the layout,
y fonts, page
p g and paragraph
p g p breaks, tables, graphs,
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charts and so on) and the relationship of the record to other related records
in the system (i.e. the links). This includes structural information about the
application software used to create the record’s content and information
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about the system (the
( platform,
p hardware and so on)) that manages
g the links
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between records.

Context is the background

g information that helps
p explain
p the meaningg of
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the document. This includes two types of information. Firstly, there is

information that identifies the particular document, such as the title, author
and date of creation. Secondly, there is information about the creator and
the p
purpose
p of creation, for instance, the nature of the business function or
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activity, the creating agency and unit concerned

 What is Records Management?

“field of management Responsibility of management

responsible for the
efficient and Sense of order
systematic control of
the creation, receipt,
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maintenance,
i t use and
d
Full lifecycle
disposition of records,
including processes for
capturing and Records disposed of
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maintaining evidence
of and information Evidence needs to be credible
about business
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activities and
transactions in the Records
form of records”
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AIIM
 International Records Management
Standard – ISO15489

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO),

officially launched the International Standard on Records
Management, ISO 15489,15489, on October 2001. This Standard,
which is based significantly on the previous de facto
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international standard, the groundbreaking Australian

Standard AS 4390-
4390-1996: Records Management promulgates
international best practice records management.
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ISO 15489 comprises of two parts:

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ISO 15489.1 Records Management - Part 1: General,

ISO 15489.2 Records Management - Part 2:
Guidelines.
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NB. Developed from former Australian Standard –

AS4390:1--6
AS4390:1
 “
“Records management and recordkeeping i has to be seen
as part of the broader Public Sector Reform agenda,
and should not be treated as a separate
p entity.”
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Sahr Kpundeh
p (2002)
( )
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Governance and Anti-

Anti-corruption Specialist
World Bank Institute
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 What Exactly is
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Corruption…?
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 Definition:

Corruption

I. … behavior on the part of officials in the public sector, whether

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politicians or civil servants, in which they improperly and

unlawfully enrich themselves, or those close to them, by the misuse
of the ppublic power
p entrusted to them. This would include
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embezzlement of funds, theft of corporate or public property as

well as corrupt practices such as bribery, extortion or influence
peddling.
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Transparency International (TI)

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 Definitions cont’d

Corruption

II. The promise, offering or giving to a public official, directly or

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i di tl off an undue
indirectly, d advantage,
d t for
f the
th official
ffi i l himself
hi lf or
herself or another person or entity, in order that the official act or
refrain from acting in the exercise of his or her official duties;
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The solicitation or acceptance by a public official, directly or

indirectly, of an undue advantage, for the official himself or
herself or another person or entity, in order that the official act or
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refrain from acting in the exercise of his or her official duties.

Article 8 of the Convention against Transnational Organized
Crime
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 Good Governance

"Good
Good governance is epitomized by predictable,
predictable open and
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enlightened policy-
policy-making, a bureaucracy imbued with a
professional ethos acting in furtherance of the public good,
the rule of law
law, transparent processes,
processes and a strong civil
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society participating in public affairs. Poor governance (on

the other hand) is characterized by arbitrary policy making,
unaccountable bureaucracies,, unenforced or unjustj legal
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systems, the abuse of executive power, a civil society

unengaged in public life, and widespread corruption."
(World Bank,2006)
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 Using Records to
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repel Corruption
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 Information

“ f
“Information
i isi critical
i i in i governance. It is
i through iti
that the government relates with the public. It is thus
a bridge
g between the government
g and the people.”
p p
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Charles Nandain ((2006))

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Head, ICT, Library and Coordinator of Makerere University

Kenya
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 Information

Information as ‘Power’ to the citizenry

Access to information via publishing of government information
builds accountability and inclusiveness

St t monitoring
State it i off Information
I f ti
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PAC Sittings, Commissions of Enquiry etc.

MIS as an Administrative tool in Government

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Used to monitor routine functions and processes to determine

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performance
f and
d fforecasting
i

Integrity Legislation
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FOI, Declaration of Assets, & Data Protection

 Access to Information/ Freedom of
Information

These laws are currently within five (5) countries of

the Caribbean Region:
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Freedom of Information Act (2000) - Belize

F d
Freedom off IInformation
f i A Act (2000) - Trinidad
T i id d & T
Tobago
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Access to Information (2002) Act – Jamaica

Freedom of Information (2003) - St. Vincent & the Grenadines
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Freedom of Information (2004) – Antigua & Barbuda

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 How will these types of
legislation affect Records
Management?
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 Access to Information/ Freedom of
Information

Some of the services under a FOI Act that affect

people managing information are that they must:
must:--
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ƒ locate and acquire information promptly upon request;

ƒ select all types of appropriate media to service the information
needs
d off the
h organization;
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ƒ assist and co-operate with other staff members within the

organization who maintain personal or divisional information files
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or retrieval
i l systems;

ƒ Last but not least

least… Have the Records in ORDER
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Educ
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Electronic Records
 “
“Poor people around the world suffer
ff dailyi because
systems for creating, organizing, disseminating, and
preserving
p g accurate and reliable official information
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have broken down. The situation will be even harder

to manage in an electronic environment.”
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Evidenced--based Governance in the Electronic Age

Evidenced g Project
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World Bank/ International Records Management Trust

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 Most of us keep RECORDS
our data/ MANAGEMENT
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information on STANDARDS
computer
systems
systems,
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therefore, we
must ensure that
we can: protect
protect,,
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access and share

them.
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 Use of Technology

Most of today’s
records start out
in electronic form
Letters
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E-mails
Faxes
Web transactions
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Other transactions
etc...
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 Formats of record

Electronic

Note : ERM focuses on ‘unstructured’

unstructured records
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Physical
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R
 Electronic Mail

“Email is a source of risk exposure”

Bryant
y Duhon,, Editor AIIM E-
E-Doc Magazine
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The cost of eDiscovery is often enough to cause a company to settle

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rather than undergo the financial expenses and loss of productivity

involved in this process.
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Some Standards that address E-

E-Mail:
DoD: 5015.2 – section C2.2.4 – Electronic Mail requirements for ERMS
ISO: 15489 – clause 9 – RM p
processes and controls for ERMS
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ANSI/ARMA 9-2004 – Requirements for managing emails as records

 Metadata

Metadata is “data about data” or “data concerning

d t characteristics
data h t i ti andd relationships”
l ti hi ” (Rob
(R b andd
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Coronel, 1995)
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Metadata is a relatively new notion for the archival and records

profession. Interest in metadata stems from the realisation that
electronic records do not contain enough contextual
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information to enable future users to fully understand the

record. Metadata is an attempt to capture this information in a
systematic
y and structured manner that can be stored in
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electronic format and easily migrated with the record over time.
 Metadata may be categorized as:
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ƒ Descriptive: information describing the content

ƒ Structural: information that ties items, such as pages in a book, or
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documents in case folder

ƒ Administrative: information used to manage and control access
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 An example of Metadata:
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 An example of Metadata:
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 Electronic Records

Electronic records and information should also

conform to the following basic RM principles:
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ƒ Authenticity – record can be proven

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ƒ Reliability – record can be trusted

ƒ Integrity – record is complete and unaltered
ƒ Usability
U bilit – record
d can b
be llocated,
t d retrieved,
t i d presented
t d and
d
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interpreted.
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See: ISO: 15489-1:2001, section:7.2

 Benefits of Good Recordkeeping

Th benefits
The b fi off goods
d records
d are many, b
but usually
ll iit results
l iin:

ƒ increase efficiencyy and productivity;

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ƒ protect the organization from litigation;

ƒ evidence of transactions/ events for audit purposes;
ƒ preservation
ti off th
the institutional
i tit ti l memory off the
th organization;
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ƒ facilitation of the resumption of operations in the event of a disaster; and

ƒ ensuring that employee benefits can be supported via information
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maintained
i i d iin personall records d.
ƒ Government and organizations being accountable to their constituency
and stakeholders.
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Educ
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c
Good
Luck!
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Any Questions?
 Thank You
Want to know more
About Records?:
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http://www.lorsonresources.com/seminar1.asp
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Contact::
Contact
E
Emerson O
O. B
Bryan
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emerson.bryan@gmail.com
Tel: +1246
1246 430 1677 Fax: +1246
1246 228 9528
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