05 Feb 2019

Records are a vital and powerful tool for good governance as they facilitate daily operations and decision making, says Assistant Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development Mr Dikgang Makgalemele.

Officially opening the Records Management and Archives Administrationçin Gaborone yesterday, Mr Makgalemele said accurate and reliable records were critical to accountability, compliance and service delivery.

He said although management of public records was a major concern in developing countries, Botswana had made strides in the area.

Government, he said,  continued to provide the necessary infrastructure such as records storages in Francistown, Kanye and Gaborone.

He said there was therefore need to appreciate the vitality of records to life in general.

For his part, Professor Patrick Ngulube of University of South Africa (UNISA) said record management was important as it provided among others evidence, policy formation, sustained service delivery and reduced corruption.

He said it was important to keep records that supported justice, enhanced human dignity.

Prof Ngulube cautioned records managers on legal issues, saying the laws that protected propriety information and corporate records must be the concern of all record keepers.

As record keepers, he said,  they should be familiar with laws such as National Archives Act and Freedom of Information Act.

Such pieces of legislation, he said, made record keeping important and safeguarded  organisations against litigation and ensured that record keepers managed records that supported the knowledge economy.

As archivist and records managers, Prof Ngulube said, they should understand the challenges they faced in the knowledge economy.

To attain knowledge economy, he said, people and organisations should create, acquire, disseminate, combine, research and develop, use and commercialize knowledge more effectively to enhance economic growth and competitiveness.

Technologically, Prof Ngulube observed, there had been reliance on mobile technology and other electronic communication tools and widespread use of such electronic systems in the workplace.

However, he said electronic records management responsibilities were often not clear or understood.

Therefore, partnerships and cooperation between record keepers and computer specialists, information technology experts, auditors and other stakeholders needed to be of importance, as records would still be available in future regardless of technology and format changes, he said.

The conference was held under the theme “Strengthening strategic partnerships: records management, key to good governance and attainment of Vision 2036.”

The theme called for engagement of archives and records management stakeholders, regulators, information technology specialists, administrators and legal minds to collectively account to the nation. Ends