The 2021/22 Annual Report on the State of Government Recordkeeping, from the former Chief Archivist Stephen Clarke, was presented to Parliament today by the Minister of Internal Affairs, Hon. Jan Tinetti. The report says robust information management in the public sector is a cornerstone of openness and transparency, affirming evidence of government decision making that results in outcomes across all aspects of the lives of New Zealanders.

“Records are taonga,” says Mr Clarke, “and information management is the lifeblood of our democracy”.

“It has been 25 years since the public sector began its digital information management journey — and there is still a dearth of preparedness for digital archiving across most organisations.

“Across the [public] sector we are not consistent in our approach to information management. Yet we are entering what is likely to be the most exciting period of opportunity for the information management in the public sector with massive changes in the health, water, and education sectors.”

The report details how the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historic Abuse has highlighted the importance and value of robust public recordkeeping, where a lack of accessibility to official documents has been highlighted, alongside the power of records that can be accessed by those seeking redress.

“From Archives New Zealand’s perspective, organisational change requires careful consideration of IM, the control of transferred records and the management of disposal authorisations across the impacted public offices.”

Archives New Zealand is responsible for regulating public offices under the Public Records Act (PRA) 2005. An Information Maturity Assessment for government agencies already provides clear and specific self-assessment guidance on Archives’ expectations of agencies in meeting the requirements of the PRA and mandatory Information and records management standard.

The PRA provides Archives NZ and the Chief Archivist with regulatory tools including the audit of central government bodies, the power to direct a public office to report to us, the ability to inspect records and to set standards and issue guidance on how records must be managed.

While challenges remain, there are several positive developments. The audit programme points to gaps in information management maturity but also highlights organisations with high maturity as models. There is also strong and timely engagement by public offices on post-audit follow-ups. Public offices are engaged and seeking to implement improvements arising from audit recommendations. Another encouraging trend was the 94 percent response rate from 226 public offices and local authorities invited to participate in Archives’ annual recordkeeping survey. This was an increase from 84 percent last year and may indicate a growing awareness of the importance of information management among public sector leadership.

Read the full Chief Archivist’s Annual Report 2021/22 here.

(NB: This report on the state of government recordkeeping is fronted by Stephen Clarke, who completed his term as Chief Archivist in October 2022. During publication of this report, Anahera Morehu was appointed as Chief Archivist for a period of six months.)

© Scoop Media