The Chief Archivist’s report to the Minister of Internal Affairs on the state of recordkeeping in public offices and the 2014/15 recordkeeping audits was presented to the House of Representatives today.
This annual report was prepared under the Public Records Act 2005.
The report contains a section on the state of Government recordkeeping which identifies trends and issues facing recordkeeping in the public sector, as well as Archives New Zealand’s plans for improving recordkeeping across the public sector.
It also contains findings for the 33 public offices audited in 2014/15 and summary data from the five-year cycle of recordkeeping audits of public offices which began in July 2010. Since then 201 audits have been completed.
The standard of recordkeeping maturity achieved by public offices since the Public Records Act came into force is not at the level the Chief Archivist would expect. Archives New Zealand will evaluate the current audit programme during 2015/16 to assess its value to public offices before starting the new programme of audits.
Archives New Zealand is also examining its wider role as a regulator so that good records provide a foundation for government accountability and the public can have confidence in the integrity of government records.
The report may be viewed at: Report: State of Government Recordkeeping and Public Records Act 2005 Audits 2014/15