A performance audit into Government Agencies’ planning and implementation of a whole-of-Government electronic document and records management system (EDRMS) has found that despite a slow start, good progress has been made.
In his Report, Digital Records Management, Auditor-General, Michael Harris said planning for a whole-of-Government EDRMS commenced in 2011, but there was slow progress until the One ACTPS Digital Recordkeeping Capability Project established a clear way forward in 2015 and the four-year Better Government: Digitising Government Records Budget initiative commenced in 2018.
“The 2018 initiative sought to ‘set up a governance framework and a best practice method to provide consistency and quality to the management of digital recordkeeping systems, and cohesion and efficiency to digital recordkeeping initiatives across the ACTPS,” Mr Harris said.
“The Audit found that three years into the initiative, progress has been made against three of its four deliverables,” he said.
“Ninety-two percent of the additional users envisaged at the outset of the initiative are now using one of the two endorsed EDRMS (Objective and TRIM) and a strategy for the next phase in the EDRMS pathway has been established.”
Mr Harris said, however, the development of a comprehensive and sustainable funding model for digital records management remained unresolved.
The Auditor-General said the rollout and consolidation of whole-of-Government EDRMS had been supported by improved governance and administrative arrangements, including the establishment of whole-of-Government oversight entities.
“While these governance and administrative arrangements have been established, it is difficult to assess the impact of the arrangements on whole-of-Government EDRMS implementation due to a lack of documentation regarding planning and decision making,” he said.
“The establishment of an EDRMS performance framework, which would provide assurance on the implementation of whole-of-Government EDRMS, could be expected to enhance transparency and accountability, and ultimately inform future investment and management effort.”
Mr Harris made five recommendations in total, three to the Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development Directorate to develop a strategy for the migration of standalone TRIM versions to the whole-of-Government TRIM; develop a performance framework for the implementation of EDRMS; and determine if a central recurrent funding model for the whole-of-Government EDRMS was appropriate.
He made two recommendations to the Community Services Directorate to ensure the Better Government initiative achieved its goal of digitising 161,000 hardcopy files and to prepare a model that could be used across Government Directorates and Agencies for the digitisation of hardcopy files.
The Auditor-General’s 113-page Report can be accessed at this PS News link and the audit team was David Kelly, James Penny and Laura Thomas.
