Good morning Listers

This is day four of our discussion on Aligning records management with ICT e-government and Freedom of Information in East Africa, a study conducted by International Records Management Trust (IRMT) and supported by IDRC . The study covered five Eastern African Countries namely Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and Tanzania

Today, we move on to the second theme namely: Electronic Records and Citizens. This will be our focus for today, tomorrow and Wednesday.

Under this theme, three issues were identified. They are:

1.    Records Management Controls Protect Records as Evidence: erroneous information can become ‘authoritative’ source in the absence of original records.

2.    Judicial processes are affected by the failure to address records management requirements.

3.    Evidentiary value of electronic records: relying on electronic records before the law recognizes them as evidence put government and citizens at risk. If electronic records are to have value as evidence, the laws of evidence need to be reformed.

Let us focus on our first concern: Records Management Controls Protect Records as Evidence: erroneous information can become ‘authoritative’ source in the absence of original records.

Consider this:

Are electronic records more secure than hard copy records?

How can governments ensure that security is maintained when digitizing records?

How can governments ensure that originality of records is maintained when digitizing records?

What planning is needed to ensure that digitized records are secure and retain their originality?

Question

How can the risks of overlooking records management issues during computerisation be highlighted to senior management within government?

 
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