managing electronic records in governmental bodies - National ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

41 The electronic records management software must be able to prevent changes to the content of records and must provide the functionality to record all events that affect the records to make it possible to track deliberate or accidental alterations of records. It is imperative that the system logs an audit trail of all actions that were taken against a record including the date of the action and the identification of the person who has taken the action. It should log changes to the records and to the metadata. The system should also be capable of preserving the audit logs as records in the electronic repository and must prevent them from being changed. Audit trail An audit trail is a record of actions taken on records within the electronic repository. Records must be able to be deleted from the system. The electronic records management software must provide the functionality to record all events that affect the records to make it possible to track authorised and unauthorised deletion of records. The National Archivist is the only authority who can authorise the legal destruction of records in terms of a disposal authority. It must not be possible to destroy or delete records or their metadata information outside of the normal disposal function. It must also not be possible to hide records by deleting their metadata. All disposal actions should be logged to ensure that illegal destruction of records could be traced. Proper records management also requires that files and their metadata should be transferred from one storage medium or location to another, as their activity decreases and/or their use changes. This transfer can be to either near-line, offline or into archival custody. It must at all times be possible to trace the precise location of records by recording references to the new location of the records. The destruction and transfer audit log should be kept as part of the records of a fully documented disposal process and should be unalterable. The records management software must keep an audit trail of: • all the actions that are taken upon an electronic record, electronic file or file plan; • the user initiating and/or carrying out the action; • the date and time of the event. The system must also provide an audit trail of all changes made to: • groups of electronic files; • individual electronic files; • electronic volumes; • electronic records; • electronic documents • metadata associated with any of the above, and Managing electronic records_Policy Guidelines.doc First Edition Version 1.1 April 2003
42 • of all changes made to administrative parameters, e.g. changes to access restrictions, etc. Digital certificates and digital signatures This is the most secure way to ensure that a document cannot be tampered with to protect its integrity and reliability as evidence of a transaction. The specific digital signature and digital signature application and infrastructure that the public service should use will be prescribed in standards issued by SITA. The governmental bodies should ensure that electronic records management application are able to integrate with digital signature and digital certificate technology. Rendition The electronic records management application should be able to render records to different formats. The purpose of rendition is to provide electronic documents in formats that are software and hardware independent so that they can be read by any computer system accessing the information. Rendition is a functionality to display documents in a different format than that they were created in. E.g. a Word document (.doc) displayed as a PDF (.pdf) document or HTML (.html) document, etc. This provides a format that everyone can display and eliminates the need for all users to have the original application installed on their desktops. Records stored in their native format can be rendered to another read only format when accessed. This functionality is especially useful to protect the original format from being altered. Website management A website is a record, which contains information regarding the structure and functions of an office, the legislation it administers, its current policies and guidelines and advice on how to apply the legislation and policies as well as information on products and services. An office can be held accountable for the information published on its site. For evidential, legal and accountability reasons it is imperative to keep a record of what was available on the site and how it was presented at a given time. Ideally a website and its content should be managed via an electronic records management application. All documents published to the website should be checked into the electronic repository before being published to the site. The website should link to the repository and extract its information from the repository. This should prevent multiple copies of the same documents existing in various places. A record of a website should be created by extracting a precise copy (that keeps the look and feel of the website and maintains the links in the website without Managing electronic records_Policy Guidelines.doc First Edition Version 1.1 April 2003
Page 1 and 2: MANAGING ELECTRONIC RECORDS IN GOVE
Page 3 and 4: Content PREFACE ...................
Page 5: i PREFACE The increasing use of ele
Page 8 and 9: 3 The Public Finance Management Act
Page 10 and 11: 5 guidelines set out in this public
Page 12 and 13: 7 means that it takes up very littl
Page 14 and 15: 9 o identifying records that are du
Page 16 and 17: 11 requirements regarding the mediu
Page 18 and 19: 13 the AIIM International Standards
Page 20 and 21: 15 invalidates accounting entries.
Page 22 and 23: 17 While some of the records publis
Page 24 and 25: 19 The National Archives and Record
Page 26 and 27: 21 electronic document management,
Page 28 and 29: 23 necessary to avoid technological
Page 30 and 31: 25 • if and e-mail is received an
Page 32 and 33: 27 records to capture of their webs
Page 34 and 35: 29 only be necessary to provide an
Page 36 and 37: 31 bodies should ensure that, even
Page 38 and 39: 33 Managing electronic records_Poli
Page 40 and 41: 35 To ensure that records remain ac
Page 42 and 43: 37 Because users have high expectat
Page 44 and 45: 39 records. Archiving Electronic re
Page 48 and 49: 43 duplicating documents that alrea
Page 51 and 52: 46 ANNEXURE B: Digital preservation
Page 53 and 54: 48 Migration Strategy 5. Store reco
Page 55 and 56: 50 ANNEXURE C: Schedule for electro
Page 57 and 58: 52 the system. A transfer list in w
Page 59 and 60: 54 Supportive legal documents attac
Page 61 and 62: 56 ANNEXURE D: General disposal aut
Page 63 and 64: 58 Africa, EXCLUDING records contai
Page 65: 60 4.13 Security Backup Files Elect
Page 68 and 69: 63 (e) (f) (g) annotated drafts whe
Page 70 and 71: 65 - Information in a form intended
Page 72 and 73: 67 3. Deterioration of magnetic med
Page 74 and 75: 69 Floppy disks and diskettes shoul
Page 76 and 77: 71 signal which can be read using a
Page 78 and 79: 73 in optical disks. WORM and rewri
Page 80 and 81: 75 Insects and rodents once attract
Page 83 and 84: 78 ANNEXURE I: Glossary Act The Nat
Page 85 and 86: 80 Electronic records Any informati
Page 87 and 88: 82 microfilm or electronic media).
Page 89 and 90: 84 Transmission data Information in
Page 91 and 92: 86 ANNEXURE J: Bibliography Aeon Ar
Page 93 and 94: 88 Kronauer, C.: Special Report SAN
Page 95: 90 Vasudeva, A.: Special Report SAN

managing electronic records in governmental bodies - National ...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?