About 95% of Ghana’s national records in paper form – Director

Mr Felix Ampong, Acting Director of Public Records and Archives Administration (PRAAD) on Tuesday said about 95 per cent of national records were being held in paper form.

He said the records also lacked the necessary buck up, in cases of fire outbreaks.

He said although some of the records were being digitised, it was high time State institutions were financially supported to take advantage of the technological advancements to adapt to electronic records management.

Mr Ampong was speaking at a workshop organised by the Human Rights Advocacy Centre, in collaboration with the World Bank, Ghana Civil Service and International Records Management Trust.

Participants would be educated on the various benefits and challenges facing the right to information bill, which is presently before Parliament.

It also seeks to explore the assessment carried out by two consultants to determine the potential constraints, which are possible threats to implementing the Right to Information Bill.

The consultants from IRMT of London carried out the feasibility studies at the Public Records and Archives Administration Department and the three pilot Ministries, Departments and Agencies, namely Ministry of Information, Energy and the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly to determine whether current records management practices in these agencies could support Right to Information.

Mr Ampong said the poor record keeping practices had resulted in the inability to retrieve information with speed with such searches sometimes extending to hours and even days.

He said proper records management was necessary to ensure probity, transparency and accountability, adding that, it supported good governance in rule of law, which is, legislative records, court records, police and prison records.

In addition, it promotes accountability through accounting records, audit records, tax and pension records.

“Lack of funding and human resource are some of the problems facing PRAAD,” he added.

Nana Oye Lithur, Director of Human Rights Advocacy Centre (HRAC) said the Coalition on the Right to Information had been having a long battle with Parliament to pass the Right to Information Bill into law.

Mr Collin Crooks and Teresa Bastow from the International Records Management Trust in the UK and their Ghanaian colleague Cletus Azangweo, all consultants on records management, said apart from the Ministry of Energy, which might have less difficulty, State records management in the other two pilot Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) were very poor, and receiving information by print or electronic medium proved challenging.

They called on MDAs to develop and establish proper record-keeping regimes to ensure the successful implementation of the Right to Information (RTI) Law in Ghana.

They pointed out that the poor record-keeping regimes that had existed over the years within most MDAs, must give way to modernised methods, using technology to enhance quality, save time, money and promote easy access.

Source: GNA