Page 4 - Professorial Lecture - Prof Nengomasha

Abstract

There is a visible transformational change to modernise the public service of
Namibia through the adoption of e-government. Evidently, such change must
be supported by a transformed records and archives management programme.
As Government’s Offices, Ministries and Agencies focus on upgrading or
developing electronic systems and processes to improve their online presence,
ensuring that some of the electronic records created today must be part of the
nation’s history and heritage is cardinal. Electronic records are only as good
and useful if they are trustworthy – that is having integrity; are authentic, reliable
and usable. Research, including electronic records-readiness assessments of the
public service of Namibia report that Namibia may not fully realise the benefits
of e-government if it fails to maintain trustworthy electronic records. These
underscore the fact that since e-Government services produce e-records that
document government transactions, their extent of trustworthiness will forever
remain critical in ensuring digital continuity in public records management.

To understand one of the persistent challenges that confront records management
in the public service of Namibia which has a direct effect on transforming records
and archives management in line with digital transformation, the paper, among
other issues, covers the history of records and archives management in the public
service of Namibia. Research shows that colonial and post-colonial periods, have
had lasting impact on records and archives management in public services in
Africa including Namibia. Thus, for example, it is documented that most earlier
changes in staffing at independence have continuously bedeviled the practice.
There are reports of good records management in the public service of Namibia,
which changed with independence when qualified and experienced staff were
replaced with unskilled staff as the country worked affirmative action to redress
the imbalances of the past. Past and recent studies are therefore in constant
agreement that one of the main challenges is unskilled and untrained staff
manning the government registries/records offices.

Studies and consultancy reports also show how some government functions
have been carried out for a long-time with no proper records management
systems to capture and manage the records. Thus, whereas with paper records,
it has been largely possible to survey, organise, describe and provide access

Prof. Cathrine Nengomasha | Professorial Lecture 4