Good recordkeeping is good governance

Shifting recordkeeping out of the basement and into the boardroom is one of the long-term goals of the Pacific Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives (PARBICA), which is holding a three-day workshop this week at the Crown Beach Resort.
“We’re talking primarily of public records,” explained Adrian Cunningham, PARBICA’s treasurer and the director of strategic relations for the National Archives of Australia.
“That is the records created by governments as evidence of their decisions and activities,” Cunningham said. “Governments, when they are conducting their business, have a responsibility to make and keep proper records of those activities so they can account for their activities to the people.”
The Cook Islands rejoined PARBICA after the implementation of the Official Information Act 2008. The Office of the Ombudsman obtained the new membership after the National Archives fell behind in its payment of the annual subscription fee.
This week’s workshop is the second of three in Phase 5 of the PARBICA toolkit project. The purpose of this phase, according to Cunningham, is to develop tools and guidelines for managing electronic records.
“An emerging issue, world-wide, with recordkeeping is the emergence of digital records and that development presents its own recordkeeping challenges to us as a profession,” he said. “In most governments in the region, the official record is still the paper file. I suspect that will continue for a few years yet.”
The PARBICA members are concerned that, in light of recent reforms in public administrations, recordkeeping has suffered as collateral damage. The organization is striving to turn the tide and redress some of those problems as it emphasises the point that good recordkeeping is good governance.
“In the longer term, today’s public records are tomorrow’s history,” said Cunningham. “Public records can be a very vital source of history in our region. To have tomorrow’s archives, we need to keep today’s records.”
Along with the Cook Islands, the other countries represented at the workshop include Papua New Guinea, Palau, Samoa, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, and Tonga.

By John Ireland

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