Fostering Trust and Transparency in Governance
Investigating and Addressing the Requirements for Building Integrity in Public Sector Information Systems in the ICT Environment
Abstract
This report summarises the findings and achievements of the project between February 2006 and October 2008. It builds upon the annual reports submitted in 2007 and 2008. It describes the research methodology, the research findings, the outputs and outcomes and the management structure for the project.
The project addressed an issue with significant implications for development in the electronic environment: the absence, in most developing countries, of the infrastructure and capacity needed to manage records input to or generated by Information Communication Technology (ICT) applications.
The fundamental driver of the project was the recognition that many governments in developing countries are attempting to move o the electronic environment without recognising that there are significant issues that need to be addressed if electronically reated records are to remain accessible over time and to provide reliable and accurate evidence of policies, activities and transactions. The project investigated these issues through case studies and through extensive consultations with stakeholders in the easten and southern African region. It defined strategies for addressing them, drawing upon and adapting emerging international good practice and relating it to the practical realities and constraints idenified through the research.
Drawing on and adapting international good practice, the project developed a set of educational and guidance materials to equip records professionals and assist governments in addessing the challenges of managing records in the electronic environment. These products are being made available free of charge by post in hard and electronic copy, and also via email and through the IRMT's website.
The project has laid a foundation for managing electronic records as part of the transition to the electronic environment. There now is a significantly higher degree of ownership of the issues involved among records professionals in eastern and souhern Africa, as well as a growing awareness of the importance of managing records as evidence among government stakeholders.
A regional stakeholders' meeting organised through the Project in Pretoria in May 2008, put forward a resolution to establish a Centre of Excellence for Managing Electronic Records. This has aroused a high level of interest, and the report reviews the steps being taken to establish such a centre.
Citation
International Records Management Trust, 91 pp.
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