Records Management Practices in Public Service and

Abstract

Records management is an important component of information management. Records represent a major source of information that provides evidence of decisions, actions, and interactions between government and citizens. Records management practices underpin all aspects of public service administration, and are a critical activity for effective service delivery. Records are regarded as the “lifeblood of public administration” (Fletcher, 1990). To this end, record keeping is a fundamental and core activity of public sector management. Without reliable records, there can be no accountability and no rule of law. The failure to manage records leads to poor decisions and an inability to measure programmes and service effectiveness. The Directorate of Social Security within the Eastern Cape Department of Social Development is used as a case study to investigate records management practices and effects on service delivery. The key issues raised in the study were: records management processes and procedures, records management policy and the regulatory environment, influence of Information Technology on records management practices. The research findings were assessed against the International Standard for Records Management (ISO 15489) to identify gaps between best practices captured in the standard, and what is happening in reality in relation to records management policies, procedures and processes. The standard (ISO 15489) is endorsed by the National Archives and Records Service of South Africa. It provides guidelines on records management practices and a benchmark to measure the effectiveness of records management programmes and systems in organizations. The key findings include: · There is no records management policy statement, the social grant records are managed without recourse to legislative requirements · Training is not focused on records management principles. iii · The implementation of the Social Development Information Management System has brought improvements to service delivery, though there are still infrastructural and communication problems between social grant offices at local, district levels. · Respondents cited lack of human resources and functional capacity in some areas of social grant processing as an obstacle to service delivery.