Federal Agencies Get Audited – And Told To Clean Themselves Up
Federal Agencies Get Audited – And Told To Clean Themselves Up
An audit of key Federal government agencies raises concern over electronic recordkeeping practices and recommends the National Archives of Australia provide clearer guidelines.
The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Attorney-General’s Department and the Australian Electoral Commission, all faced the audit in to their recordkeeping practices. With their systems exposed, the three agencies provided the fodder for the Australia National Audit Office report titled “Recordkeeping including the Management of Electronic Records.”
Departments audited faired well in paper recordkeeping but electronic documents were another story.
The audit found two agencies had a ‘print to paper’ policy which it considered an outdated approach that would unlikely meet the requirements for creating and storing records over the longer term.
While the departments had the systems in place for keeping both electronic and paper records, the systems for electronic records were often contrary to the corporate record keeping framework.
During the planning and implementation of new electronic systems, the audit found the agencies failed to effectively consider the need for recordkeeping functionality. “As a result,” the report concludes, “some systems were being used to maintain records although they had not been designed to do so.” Other systems with the capacity to manage records were not being used accordingly.
Much of the ANAO’s concern is derived from the ever changing guidance for standards, policies and legislation. The mixture of “mandatory legislative requirements” and “better practice advice and guidance” may complicate recordkeeping practices, resulting in inconsistent knowledge of each department’s records.
The ANAO also suggests better preparation and processes for business continuity and disaster recovery.
The report recommends further guidance from the National Archives of Australia to set minimum standards for each department’s recordkeeping, especially in the electronic arena. The NAA should also regularly publish guidance, standards, legislation and policies that will assist agencies in fulfilling their recordkeeping responsibilities.
The areas specified for improvement may well be relevant to organisations in both the public and private sectors. Access security, the preservation and destruction of relevant records, controls on system design and of course the capacity for ongoing improvement, all sound rather familiar.
Destroyed Documents Destructs Seven’s Case?
For both New Ltd and the Seven Network it’s been a long battle in the C7 case, but now the Federal Court Judge involved says Seven may well be denied a fair hearing due to the document destruction policies employed by News Ltd.
Back-ups of deleted emails at News Ltd are kept for just three days - a policy that News Limited claims is legitimate. Justine Ronald Sackville is refusing to accept this, fearing that such a policy could become universal.
A common practice at News, and one that in-house layer Ian Philip admits he does himself, is to print and file copies of the emails employees want to keep. Whether or not this practice has been somewhat deliberate and designed specifically for this case remains to be decided.
Seven says over the five year period relating to the lawsuit, a mere 49 internal emails had been produced by News. These documents were produced in hardcopy format and according to Justice Sackville, by no means matched the “vast amount of material” handed over by Seven.
When John Hutley, barrister for News asked Justice Sackville, “What policy should a commercial organisation in the early 21st century, with the ubiquity of emails, adopt?” The judge gave a firm response. “Keep them,” he said. “Or don’t engage in a systematic process of removal.”