Assessment of records keeping system at National Authorizing Officer Support Unit, Ministry of Finance

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the records keeping system at NAO-SU with a view of proposing better systems of keeping records and to facilitate their timely access and retrieval at NAO-SU. The objectives of the study were to: Examine the types of records keeping systems used to manage records at NAO-SU, Determine the significance of records keeping systems at NAO-SU, Determine the factors affecting the accessibility and retrieval of records at NAO-SU, Propose and recommend proper records keeping systems in order to facilitate timely access and retrieval of records at NAO-SU. A case study approach of the qualitative research design was adopted to collect data. A sample size of 24 respondents was targeted however only 17 respondents fully participated in the study. The sampling method used to select samples was the purposive non-probability sampling method whereas Interview, observation, and document review methods were used for data collection. The findings revealed that: manual records keeping system was the most dominant type of records keeping system used at NAO-SU and it mostly signified the source of decision making within NAO-SU. The factors which affected accessibility and retrieval of records at NAO-SU included misfiling, understaffing, labeling issues, inadequate storage space and constantly changing technology. The negative factors that were supposed to be improved included more space allocation, employing more staff, sensitization, proper labeling and filing which would result to enhancing research processes, timely decision making, long term storage and preservation, and timely access and retrieval of NAO-SU records. The study concluded that the most factors affecting the records keeping system was difficulty in accessing and retrieving of NAO-SU records, the changes that were supposed to be included in the new proposed records keeping system were supposed to be addressing the issues concerning access and retrieval such as classification, proper filing and many others. The study recommended that: access and retrieval with the current records keeping system would be improved by putting in place training programs, more space allocation, digitizing and automating records, classification of records, allocating more funds and human resource.