E Bryan - An Analysis Of Content And Information Management As Drivers For E Government [Acarm]

6 ACARM Newsletter

An Analysis of Content and Information Management
as drivers for Electronic Government
by Emerson O. St. G Bryan

The “I” in ICTs
(i) be able to access relevant and reliable
ICT (information and communications information and services
technology - or technologies) is an umbrella (ii) interact and conduct business with
term that includes government, and
any communication (iii) participate in governance
device or application, electronically.
encompassing: radio,
television, cellular Government workers also expect to be able
phones, computer to conduct their various business functions
and network and communicate electronically. Electronic
hardware and information systems provide government
software, satellite with powerful tools for satisfying these
systems and so on, expectations, for creating savings and
Emerson O. St. G. Bryan
as well as the efciencies as well as for realizing the other
various services and benets of e-governance, provided they are
applications associated with them, such as managed professionally.
videoconferencing and distance learning.
As the Government of Barbados (GOB) moves
Information is the ‘I’ in ICTs and is often towards the electronic web-enabled delivery of
considered as one of the cornerstones to its various programs and services signicant
the delivery and supply of online services. opportunities will emerge to enhance the
This is especially true as it relates to ability of citizens and other stake holders
the Public Sector and is usually considered to access government information and move
to some degree by government, when beyond traditional ways of locating, accessing,
crafting National Electronic Government and retrieving government information.
(eGovernment) Initiatives. However, as
with most public sector efforts, there are The GOB would need to introduce various
challenges. Information required to support information management-related initiatives
e-Government initiatives are usually in support of the National ICT Strategic
compromised because of the absence of Plan, draft in 2005. These initiatives
supporting policies, the dependency of should involve extensive re-engineering,
information being compliant with ever rapidly and automation of various core services
evolving technologies, the lack of effective such as Tax Administration, budgeting,
tools and methods to manage information nancial management, and human resource
throughout the record/information life cycle, management, especially capturing the
and of course regrettably, failure by most documentation processes around these
policy-makers to recognize how information services. It may be necessary to collapse
can be exploited and reused to better support various instruments used to glean information
government strategies and priorities. common/ required by several public agencies
into a single-form if possible. This would
In the networked environment, citizens want minimize duplication which may occur when:
and expect to:

Antigua and Barbuda · Australia · Bahamas · Bangladesh · Barbados · Belize · Botswana · Brunei Darussalam
Cameroon · Canada · Cayman Islands · Cyprus · Dominica · Fiji · The Gambia · Ghana · Great Britain · Grenada
Guyana · India · Jamaica · Kenya ·Kiribati · Lesotho · Malawi · Malaysia · Maldives · Malta · Mauritius · Mozambique
Namibia · Nauru · New Zealand · Nigeria · Pakistan ·Papua New Guinea · St Kitts and Nevis · St Lucia · St Vincent and
the Grenadines · Seychelles · Sierra Leone · Singapore · Solomon Islands · South Africa · Sri Lanka · Swaziland
Tanzania · Tonga · Trinidad and Tobago · Tuvalu · Uganda · Vanuatu · Western Samoa · Zambia · Zimbabwe

ACARM Newsletter 7

...Continued from Page 6

(i) several forms are being used for a Strategies in other countries will reveal most
single service, were initially focused on developing and using
(ii) duplicate/ triplicate form-lling is ICT to support or enable the delivery of
required, services online, however the focus is now
(iii) human error as a result of incorrect/ on content integrity and security. In most
illegible entries. developed countries, it is recognized that
effective records management (especially
An example would be the management electronic records management) is the
of Barbados’ land bedrock for any
resources, where four e G o v e r n m e n t
public authorities: Land “Empower the citizens of Barbados by improving the programme. Unless
Tax Department, Town convenience, speed, efficiency, quality and variety of there is adequate
and Country Planning, services and information delivered by Government” infrastructure for the
Land Registration management of
Department and Lands (2004 e-Government Strategy document prepared by electronic records,
and Surveys the Barbados Ministry of Civil Service). especially as it relates
Department, across to standards affecting
“Poor people around the world suffer daily because
two ministries: Ministry the compatibility,
systems for creating, organizing, disseminating, and
of Finance and preserving accurate and reliable official information obsolescence and inter-
Economic Affairs, and have broken down. The situation will be even harder operability of public
the Ministry of Housing, to manage in an electronic environment.” information systems,
Lands and the the National
Environment, have Evidenced-based Governance in the Electronic Age eGovernment Plan will
individual numbering/ Project World Bank/ International Records be compromised.
coding systems Management Trust. See: http://www.irmt.org/
pertaining to land evidence/index.html Some tools and
documents. guidelines which should
be employed to manage
These information and documentation electronic records in order to support the
overlaps would need to be eliminated/ reduced National ICT strategy are:
and the next step would be to have this
form completed electronically and then made • The Records Management Capacity
available across the affected public authority. Assessment System (RMCAS)
Essentially, the aim of this approach would • MoReq (Model Requirements for the
be to introduce a more user-friendly way of Management of Electronic Records)
transacting business with the government. • DoD: 5015.2 (U. S. Department
It would also ease the work of the public of Defense: Design Criteria Standard
servants. for Electronic Records Management
and Software Applications)
It is hoped that it will be now more apparent
by the progress of this discourse, that all NB. See appendix for more details on these
these initiatives are heavily reliant on good industry standards.
recordkeeping.
These tools and guidelines are useful in
providing the required information
Standards, Legislation and Regulation
 This is modeled on the international standard for records management:
Issues ISO: 15489 and is a IRMT/World Bank electronic records management tool
 See: http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/2303/5644
 See: http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/html/50152std.htm
An examination of most early eGovernment


8 ACARM Newsletter


management environment needed to support a structured programme, such as the
the introduction and sustainability of online Community Technology Programme now
government services and content. Since being administered in Barbados. Also, change
most eGovernment is dependent on electronic management workshops for personnel
records, there must be consideration for delivering these new services using electronic
description/ discovery, retention and archiving content and information delivery modes.
of these media types.
• Freedom of Information (FOI)/
There are some concerns, which are not Privacy
limited to Barbados, but might be currently The Ofcial Secrets Act makes it very difcult
existent in most Commonwealth Caribbean to properly lter information which should be
Countries, as it would relate to the information within the public domain to be included as
systems that now support the eGovernment part of an eGovernment Service. A FOI and
Programme. Privacy law would better guide information
service professionals as to the types of
• Capacity Building information to digitize and mount on the
Usually, there is the need for providers of website, made available to the public as part
the various information and documentation of G2C and G2B services, as well as the types
services to be delivered online, to be of information to protect.
properly trained in how to structure and
manage information that is relevant to • Integrity of information
the intended audience. Issues surrounding The lack of a public key infrastructure
effective content management, especially (PKI) at this time makes it very difcult to
electronic data description (metadata), and authenticate both documents and users of
archiving electronic content both for the back- these services. There is also the possibility
end and front end. of identity theft and violation of personal
privacy under the current arrangements for
• Infrastructure Incompatibility these services online.
Within the Region there are no standards in
any of the territories for the designing and
structuring of government/ public websites, Conclusion
there is no consistency or standard as to the
types of information that should reside on Most public institutions in GOB are still to
these systems. Web-site building is usually a large extent dependent on paper-based
not taken as an enterprise effort, and documentation in the back-ofce to deliver
most ministries/ departments independently online services. It must be evident by now
develop their own website. that the previous illustrations in this paper
regarding public service information systems,
• Changing Media Formats that developing and sustaining appropriate
The technologies change so fast that it is often management information systems could affect
difcult to establish permanent mechanisms the success or failure of the National
for the archiving or retention of electronic eGovernment Strategy. Building awareness
content. for good recordkeeping via initiatives such
as Records and Information Management
• Literacy Month, and BARIM Sponsored Workshops
Within most countries in the Caribbean, and Presentations, is the start on the road
there is the need for users of the systems towards better government service delivery.
who are usually not ‘computer aware’
to receive the required training through Emerson Bryan ■


ACARM Newsletter 9


Emerson. Bryan has been a Records and Information Management practitioner for over
ten years; currently he is a Consultant with the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery
(CRNM) in Barbados. He was previously involved with Electronic Governance through the
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and the Caribbean Centre
for Development Administration (CARICAD).

Contact: emerson.bryan@gmail.com

Appendix
IRMT Records Management Capacity Assessment System (RMCAS)

This tool, developed by the International Records Management Trust, in partnership with the World
Bank, provides a means of assessing records management policies, procedures and resources against
established international standards. It uses a diagnostic model, based on the records life cycle, to
identify strengths, weaknesses and risk areas, and links with a database of training and capacity
building materials that can be used to plan improvements.

Designed initially to measure records and information systems in the .nancial management, human
resource management and legal and judicial areas, it can also be applied generically.

http://www.irmt.org

EU Model Requirements for the
Management of Electronic Records
(MoReq)

The MoReq Specication is a model specication of requirements for Electronic Records Management
Systems (ERMS). It was produced by Cornwell Management Consultants plc at the request of the
European Commission; it was designed to be easily used, and to be applicable throughout Europe

http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/2303/5644

DoD:5015.2-STD, the Design Criteria Standard for Electronic Records
Management Software Applications

This standard sets forth the mandatory baseline functional requirements for Records Management
Systems (RMS) software used by the United States Department of Defense in the implementation of
their records management programme.

It contains a detailed description of the basic records management requirements that must be met,
based on the current U. S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) regulations.

http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/html/50152std.htm


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