Records management practices at the Northern Region Water Board, Malawi

Abstract

As organisations grow, so does the volume of records they generate when transacting their business with the resultant large customer base. Studies show that organisations which do not have a properly coordinated record management system, irrespective of the business sector, experience various challenges such as delays in task completion, reduced service quality, failure in meeting statutory requirements, compromised document security and these challenges lead to inconsistent cash flows. The purpose of this study was to investigate records management practices at the Northern Region Water Board, an entity that was established under the Water Act (No. 17 of 1995) of Malawi to supply potable water to the urban and semi urban areas of the Northern Region of Malawi. The study aimed at determining records creation practices, determining records preservation strategies and investigating factors that affect records management at the Northern Region Water Board. The Northern Region Water Board is one of the public institutions in Malawi, hence the findings of this study may act as a basis in efforts to improve records management practices in similar organisations in the country. The study adopted a qualitative case study that hinged on an interpretive approach. The study population comprised of Northern Region Water Board employees whose duties directly involve the creation and management of records through the daily operations of the institution. The purposive sampling technique was used in this study and only heads of sections were included in the sample. The sample size was 8. The data collection exercise ran for a period of eighteen days. This study employed an interview guide and an observation guide as tools for data collection. Data was analysed thematically. The findings of the study were that there are no formal records management policies at the Northern Region Water Board. The absence of the policies directly affects records creation practices at the institution in that there are no clearly written established guidelines for staff to follow on how to store the records they create on a daily basis. The study also noted that there are no established policies on the preservations of the records. While electronic records are mainly managed in the Board’s ERP system and the ICT’s disaster recovery plan, there are no strategies to properly preserve the paper-based records. However, the findings show that traditional measures are in place to mitigate the destruction of paper-based records. The offices are equipped with fire extinguishers to mitigate risks emanating from outbreak of fire. The paper-based records are also usually stored in lockable drawers, lockable cabinets and on elevated shelves. Older records are occasionally sent to offsite rented archiving storages, with no clear formal schedules. The main contributing factor to the state of affair is the absence of organisational policies to guide the records iii management regime at the institution. The study recommends that the NRWB should develop and operationalise records preservation strategies, especially paper-based records which were observed to be at a particular risk. The study also recommends the establishment of formal guidelines for the management of records in the organisation.