Records management and the accountability of governance

Abstract

Governance is the process by which power and authority are exercised in a society by which government, the private sector, and citizens' groups articulate their interests, mediate their differences, and exercise their legal rights and obligations. Governance in public organisations is different from that in private organisations as they both possess different types of institutional stakeholders. Governments are directly answerable to the public. Therefore, it is essential for governments to be transparent in order to avoid any triggers in the accountability process that might adversely affect people's trust. The proper creation, capture, distribution and preservation of judicial evidence in the form of records can help avoid these problems. A trusted government is one that can demonstrate its accountability and transparency and is continually striving to improve value delivery and increase cost-effectiveness. The freedom of information demands governments to be more transparent and accountable for their actions and decisions. Whilst governments promote corporate governance to provide transparency and objectivity it can only give stakeholders better tools to do their job, it does not and cannot do it for them. The need for managing risk and audit culture is imperative to balance and satisfy the expectation of citizen and stakeholders. The accountability of a government can arguably only be achieved when it demonstrates considerable transparency, which in turn can only happen when trust is supported by authentic and reliable records. The records management community claims that records have to be preserved for accountability, but they rarely explore what 'accountability' is and what role records play in the accountability processes. In addition, the contribution of records management to good governance and accountability are often not recognised by other professions and management. In an age where corporate governance and transparency is a global agenda, it is imperative for the records management community to scrutinise their present role and approach in order to change the perception by other professions about their contribution towards achieving organisational goals in a highly regulated and compliant bound environment in the public and private sectors. The contention of this thesis is that record keeping is just a tool that ensures the availability of evidence for the accountability of governance, which in turn relies on the ethical standard of those involved.

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