Poor archiving in public sector

Public sector organisations have come under fire for their poor record-keeping, with a report warning that important documents could be damaged, destroyed or inappropriately accessed as a result.

In an Archives NZ report, chief archivist Marilyn Little said it was ‘‘disappointing’’ that barely half of the public offices audited by Archives NZ in 2014/15 had an appropriate level of recordkeeping, 10 years after the Public Records Act came into force.

‘‘Low levels of record-keeping maturity indicate that some public offices are not effectively managing business risks or ensuring that records are created and maintained to enable government accountability.’’

More than half of the public offices audited did not have regular monitoring or reporting on their record-keeping policies and procedures, while processes for disposing and transferring unimportant records were ‘‘underdeveloped’’ in nearly all of them.

Little said over-retention of records could lead to higher storage costs, while records with long-term value were at risk of being accidentally destroyed or lost in systems ‘‘cluttered with lower-value records’’.

Public sector organisations that did not ‘‘systematically’’ manage how their records were created and maintained were more likely to leave important activities undocumented; to accidentally damage or destroy records; and to allow inappropriate access to records containing sensitive, confidential or private information.

Little said public offices needed to conduct routine evaluations of their records management, while many still had to develop and fulfil plans for disposing of records.

Internal Affairs Minister Peter Dunne agreed with Little’s concerns. ‘‘It’s not a question of just throwing out those old files because we don’t need them any more, there is a public records factor that they’ve got to take much more seriously into account.’’

Dunne said there was a ‘‘declining recognition’’ of the importance of keeping records in the digital age, which needed to be addressed.

Organisations with poor record-keeping practices needed to get advice from Archives NZ and act on it as soon as possible, he said.

‘‘I don’t think there’s any room for error here because, in a funny sort of way, the implications of those decisions don’t occur today – it’s 10, 20 years down the track when people seek to find out what happened and why and the records aren’t available.’’

The audit covered 33 public organisations, including tertiary education providers, state-owned enterprises, and government departments.