Analyzing of the Filing System for Financial Records at Uganda National Road Authority

Abstract

The study Analyzed the Filing System for Financial Record at Uganda National Road Authority.Four research questions guided the study; What are the financial records at UNRA? What are the storage and retrieval systems of financial records at UNRA? What are the challenges affecting financial records storage and retrieval system in UNRA? What are the solutions to the challenges of storage and retrieval of financial records at UNRA?

The study used a cross sectional design with both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies to collect and analyze data from 30 respondents including financial record storage staff, Information technology staff, human resource staff, financial records officials, assistant financial records officials and clients, using questionnaires, interviews and document analysis techniques. The data collected underwent content analysis in computer using Excel programme in order to obtain descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages where applicable.

The study found out that the main financial records managed in UNRA included financial statements, receipts, pay slips, premium return records, financial claims, audit reports, procurements reports, contracts and agreements detailing the policies between the organisation and its clients, reports of board meetings, reports of investigations on roads compensation claims by land lords. Financial records were filed in storage cabins, metallic safes, file folders, boxes, local PC hard drives, servers, mainframes, and large repositories. Access and retrieval of financial records in UNRA is done either manually or electronically depending on the form of its storage. Information retrieval selects documents from a collection according to the presence or absence of keywords assigned by an indexer. An extension of this approach allows automatic synthesis or summarization of financial records in the system.

The study concluded that access and retrieval of financial records in UNRA is done either manually or electronically depending on the form it is stored in. Information retrieval selects documents from a collection according to the presence or absence of keywords assigned by an indexer. An extension of this approach allows automatic synthesis or summarization of records in the system. When the financial records are well stored using proper indexing system, safe storage cabins and computer systems, then access and retrieval becomes easier using manual or electronic retrieval systems such as Information Visualization project at Xerox PARC, and the Piles Interface at Apple, QuickBook, LINUX, Access, and Excel among others.

The study recommended that financial records staff to be trained further in specialized programmes of financial records management such as Visual Basics, Quick Book, Access, and LINUX, Xerox PARC and Piles Interface to facilitate the use of an automated computerized financial records access and retrieval system. The bandwidth should also be increased upon in order to facilitate the faster operations on the financial record management system at UNRA.