The management of public sector financial records: The implications for good governmen

The study is a critical examination of the relationship between public sector financial records and good government. It examines the records and the record keeping systems in the central administration of finance against the background of the essential good government issues, namely, effective systems of guidance and decision making, accountability, transparency and the rule of law. The study also examines the on-going Records Management Improvement Programme in Ghana, the objective of which is to strengthen the technical and institutional capacity of the National Archives of Ghana in order to transform it into the Public Records and Archives Department. Its new mandate will be to manage government's recorded information through the unified vision of meeting the needs of users at all stages of the records life cycle. The study points out that forty years after independence, systems and procedures for managing recorded information in the financial bureaucracy are still rooted in the old colonial inheritance meant to service a small bureaucracy with limited functions and fewer records. The study argues that public finance is a major instrument of constitutional, political and administrative control and that it provides the basis for decision making and the implementation of programmes. Well kept financial records must underpin financial management business processes if the national economy is to be effectively managed. The study further argues that when effectively managed, recorded financial information provides a key resource for securing the evidence base of public financial management. The study advocates a strengthened and independent national audit authority whose partnership with the Public Records and Archives Department will provide the basis for securing accountability. Furthermore, the accountability partnership requires support from other major stakeholders in financial accountability in order to strengthen the quality of financial records management and ensure compliance with existing legislation. Finally, the study calls for an understanding of the basic record keeping conditions necessary for effective computer applications in the financial bureaucracy. It calls for a forward policy and regulatory framework to promote the effective management of records in relation to the diffusion, adoption and efficient use of computer technology.