Council on archives international records management trust
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- Need to Protect Evidence
- The Contribution of Electronic Records Management to Electronic Government
- Stakeholders
- The Public
High CostsWhen records must be kept for ten years or longer, the problems of technological obsolescence are likely to become acute. Creating and maintaining an electronic records programme is expensive compared to an equivalent programme for a paper system. Although electronic records require much less storage space than paper records, these savings are outweighed by other considerations. In virtually every other aspect, the cost of keeping electronic records is higher because they require dedicated computer equipment, stringent environmental controls and expensive specialist IT staff. Moreover, because no one knows what technology future computers may use, it is not possible to predict the costs or difficulties of computer systems. Need to Protect EvidenceManagers must ensure that the organisation document activities adequately and that records are available for legal and audit purposes. The principles relating to audit evidence do not change because an audit is being carried out in a computer environment. Computer records in the form of data on magnetic disks or optical disks must still provide the auditor with audit assurance. There are few precedents for the admissibility of computer records in a court of law. Where computer evidence has been submitted in legal cases, the courts have taken into account expert evidence on the effectiveness of the IT control environment before assessing the reliability of the computer data. Records of computerised transactions or electronic images of documents may be inadmissible as legal evidence unless controls can be shown to be so strong as to remove reasonable doubt about the authenticity and integrity of the data. Some of these controls are recorded on paper. It is therefore essential that both the electronic records and the paper records that document the control environment are each managed properly. The Contribution of Electronic Records Management to Electronic Government‘Electronic government’ is a new trend. Many governments around the world are developing systems to conduct the main business of government electronically, with the evidence of transactions stored and retrieved on computers. The aim of electronic government is to move to a paperless environment, with the only record being the electronic record. Electronic records in an electronic government must be managed in a structured and comprehensive manner. If electronic records in an electronic government are not managed in a structured and comprehensive manner, the organisation is exposed to risk, including
These risks can lead to serious consequences for the electronic government, including
An electronic records management programme will minimise these risks and therefore should be an integral component in a government’s strategy for an electronic government. Activity 12 Every organisation has different management priorities. What is the impact of electronic records on your organisation? List the issues in order of priority. Can you think of any other relevant management issues that have not been discussed in the lesson? What are the areas of risk associated with electronic records in your organisation? StakeholdersStakeholder: Any person, group or other organisation that has a claim on an organisation’s attention, resources or output or is affected by that output. Stakeholders have an interest in the establishment and maintenance of polices, systems and practices for the effective management of electronic records. Some may also have responsibility for designing and implementing all or some of the policies, systems and practices themselves. The support of stakeholders is critical to establishing a credible electronic records programme. Within the government, three types of organisations have a major interest in the management of electronic records: the archival institution, government ministries or departments and the external auditor (sometimes called the supreme auditor or auditor general). Other offices and individuals also have a stake in the effective management of electronic records. Below is a description of many of the stakeholders involved with electronic records. For more information on stakeholders, see Analysing Business Systems. The PublicThe public can be directly affected by the computerisation of government or business services. The public has an interest in electronic records, especially when the computerisation of services affects them directly. For example, the computerisation of health services affects all members of the public. Members of the public expect that their medical records are accurate, readily available when needed and handled as confidential records. In many countries, legislation to protect the creation and use of data (sometimes called data protection acts) arises from the public’s concern over the use or misuse of computerised records about individual citizens. The management of electronic records has the potential to be a sensitive public issue. Generally, members of the public are concerned that they should be able to
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