Examining the disposal of records at Infectious Diseases Institute

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the disposal of records at Infectious Diseases Institute- Makerere University. The research was guided by the research objectives which are described below; • To identify the types of records kept at Infectious diseases institute. • To examine the methods of records disposal at Infectious diseases institute. • To find out the challenges encountered in records disposal at Infectious diseases institute. • To suggest measures to improve the disposal of records at Infectious diseases institute. The study adopted a qualitative approach where the interview and observation methods were used for data collection. The methods were simultaneously used to ensure the quality of data collected from the respondents. The respondents that got involved in this study were records staff that included, the records assistant from the Human Resource section and the filing clerk from the Finance section. From the findings of the study it was observed that Infectious Diseases Institute manages and keeps different types of records and it carries out the disposal of the records they manage. The disposal is done through various ways or methods such as shredding and transfer to the archive. It was also found out that the disposal of records at IDI is affected by some challenges such as, lack of retention and disposition of records, some records require special disposal methods, challenge in evaluating the value of a record before disposal. However, the researcher and the respondents suggested the possible measures to improve the disposal of records at Infectious Diseases Institute. Some of these measures include, implementing the retention and disposal schedule of records, sensitizing the records staff on the new techniques of records disposal, use of proper methods of disposal, among others.