By: Lamin B. Darboe
The Deputy Director, National Records Service (NRS) has said that the Electronic Records Management System (ERMS) being piloted in all Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), is an effective tool for enhancing the operational efficiency of public institutions.
Mr Adama Joof said this during an exclusive interview with Gambia Daily in his office in Banjul, where he also explained his office’s roles and responsibilities among others.
He named some of the Government institutions who are currently on ERMS pilot as follows: National Records Service (NRS), Personnel Management Office (PMO), Public Service Commission (PSC), Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs (MoFEA) and the National Audit Office (NAO).
According to Mr Joof, significant productivity gains were also captured by several non-pilot MDAs where the ERMS has been introduced after 2019, including the Accountant General’s Department (AGD).
“With the support of the Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy, the ERMS would be rolled-out to all MDA’s in phases in order to create a single Electronic Records Management System for all MDAs,” Mr Joof explained.
Such initiatives he said are the only ways to fast tract the achievement of e-Government which is one of the main priorities of the Government in its efforts to realising the defined National Development Goals (NDG) and objectives through the optimal adoption and utilisation of ICTs.
He explained that his office’s main functions include:- supervising and coordinating staff in the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA); reporting to the Director on matters relating to manpower planning organisation and implementation of training needs; providing appropriate guidance on the appraisal and disposition of semi-current records and non- current records not covered by retention schedules; acquiring non-public records for safekeeping by purchases, gifts, bequests or deposits; overseeing the arrangement or assisting in the description of public records in the National Archives; supervising the preparation of appropriate guides, lists and other search aids; arranging exhibitions and supervising the conservation or preservation of holdings in the Archives; assisting in the preparation of National Record’s end of year report and assisting the Director in the preparation of annual budget.
He suggested that the monthly allocation should be augmented so that the NRS would be able to spend its allocated annual budget on programmes and activities which spread across all MDAs. He further argued that a special budget line should be created for the arrangement, decongestion and transfer of all semi-current records within MDAs to the NRS Records Centre Repositories.
Mr Joof stated that Records Management ensures that institutional records of vital historical, fiscal, and legal value are identified and preserved and that non-essential records are discarded in a timely manner according to established guidelines and identified legislation.
He posited that modern governments create and receive records relating to a vast array of persons, places, things, transactions and events, and that the National Archives, which is under the NRS, should preserve the most important of these because they are useful for research in history, government, political science, geography, economics, social phenomena, science and technology and other disciplines.
“Not everyone possesses the skills or inclination to use the archives personally in the way one might use a library. In most cases, individuals will benefit from the archives through the labour of intermediaries who may be defined as primary users. These are persons or occasionally teams of individuals who mine the rich core of the archives and distil it through their skills in research and writing into books, theses, research papers, journal articles, newspaper stories and audio-visual presentations. These become available to a much broader circle of beneficiaries comprising the secondary users of the archives”.
The secondary users, he went on, consist of specialists in various disciplines, the reading public, students of all ages and viewers of documentary cinema and television productions. Thus the activities of both primary and secondary users Mr. Joof further explained, enable the national archives to become a powerful resource in the education and cultural development of society and in fostering international understanding.
Deputy Director Joof, explained that the archives of a nation, if properly organised, managed and supported, embody a comprehensive account of the national experience.
He stated that archives document the origins and migrations of the people, the successes and failures of their leaders, the economic and social development of society, wars and natural calamities and relationships with other peoples and nations.
