An assessment of records management practices at Bugiri Local Government

Abstract

This research study is titled “An Assessment of Records Management Practices at Bugiri District Local Government” that aimed at assessing the current records management process at the organization with the essence of exploring the records management practices carried out there and on which types of records. This report is comprised of five chapters; chapter one entails the research introduction, then chapter two has the literature review, with an overview of scholars’, authors’ and former researchers’ findings and discussions, the research methodology chapter exploring the methods and research study area. The research finding which indicated poor records management from poor records creation, storages, and disposition and retrieval issues are presented and discussed in chapter four. Finally, chapter five indicates the researcher’s recommendations and conclusions. When records are poorly managed, the rate of records misplaced or lost from which useful information for decision making is usually obtained makes it difficult to provide concise and up to date records of both past and present operations, raising the challenge of effective record keeping. Therefore, the major purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of the current records management practices at Bugiri Local Government in line with clients’ services delivery ideally recommending sways to improve records management and thus improve service delivery in general. The study used a cross-sectional research and exploratory design survey, where both qualitative and quantitative techniques of data collection and a sample size of 30 respondents were used. Purposive and simple random sampling techniques were used to select the samples and both an interview guide and the questionnaire were used to collect data from the respondents. The study conducted at Bugiri District Local Government, an area from which the study’s objectives were achieved and was concluded with this piece of work by reporting the finding and recommending to all benefactors of the study from Government, District Administration to formulate and implement better policies, strategies and techniques in their registry departments to use in records management. The results indicated a prevalence of paper as the dominant medium for recording/conveying information in the council with most of these being either in active, semi-active, and vital and were kept and maintained in the registry, while in-active records were kept in the records store. Storage facilities for record-keeping were insufficient. Security measures against unauthorized access to records were by restrictions and subject users to managerial clearance. The study concluded that council records were in chaos and recommended the formulation of coherent records management policy, adequate budgetary provision, and adequate finance