Tanzania records management project

Alistair G Tough

(First published in Dunaskin News, November 2002)

Introduction

The Tanzania Records Management Project (TRMP) was an integral part of the Public Service Reform Programme (PSRP) - an overarching project intended to improve efficiency and re-orient public servants to the delivery of services to the public and their colleagues.  I joined the project in January 1999 18 months after it had begun.

During that initial period a Records Management Team (RMT) of 12 Tanzanian graduates had been recruited from within the National Archives and the Civil Service Department.  Sue Parsons, my predecessor, devoted a great deal of time and effort to training the RMT.  When I arrived they understood what they were doing and why.  A modest system of incentive payments had been introduced to reward members of the RMT and any clerical staff temporarily attached to the Team for the satisfactory achievement of targets.

At the point at which I took up my duties the TRMP was well respected in Dar es Salaam but seriously over budget and behind schedule.  We had a target of rehabilitating record keeping systems in 12 “core” ministries in 3 years.  In the first 18 months only 3 ministries’ systems had been rehabilitated.  Even worse, in one of them (Finance) our post-implementation monitoring showed that the new system had virtually broken down.  On the other side of the balance sheet, however, we did have access to the services of a range of experts who were available for short consultancy visits.  Several of those whose services we did use are named below.

My role

This changed substantially over time.  During the first six months I acted as Project Manager.  As such I was responsible for negotiations with the Directors of Administration and Personnel (DAPs) (our key contact people in each ministry), the allocation of tasks to the RMT, setting of targets for incentive payment purposes, organisation of work patterns and the logistics of supplies and transport.  Subsequently I was able to work as a true technical adviser - devising Performance Improvement Measurements, introducing appraisal and retention scheduling methodologies, working on revised procedures for the registries, contributing to the continuing professional development of RMT members and promoting vocational training for registry staff.  This was possible because Tamika Mwakahesya took over the project management role and discharged her duties with considerable success.

At an early stage, we reorganised the work pattern in ways that ultimately made it possible for us to deliver almost all of our targets.  This involved breaking up the RMT into 3 or 4 smaller teams and attaching larger squads of clerical staff to work under their direction.  Previously the RMT had worked as a single group.  By creating smaller teams, all of our graduates were encouraged to adopt a more active role.  The change began whilst we were working in the Ministry of Agriculture.  This is spread over a large site on the outskirts of the city and possesses several separate registries as a matter of necessity.  So, in the first phase of the change over, the new smaller teams were all in one ministry and within walking distance of one another.  Subsequently we embedded the change by working in several different ministries simultaneously.

Work in the registries

There was a common pattern to our daily work in the core ministries, involving the following phases:

• Listing all files, noting the date on which they had last been added to or consulted
• Removing from the active system those files that had not been used during the previous 3 years
• Constructing a new record keeping system using activity keywords, derived from functional analysis, to name files
• Staff and user training and education
• Rehabilitation of the working environment (where necessary painting dingy registries, renewing the electric lighting installations and providing new racking)
• Post implementation monitoring

The new record keeping systems were, and should still be, fit for their purpose as a corporate resource through which records and information are shared between colleagues.  I would, however, do one thing differently if I were to undertake similar work again: instead of presenting the keywords in a simple alphabetical list, I would now be inclined to use a hierarchical structure using functional keywords and activity descriptors and possibly topic terms too.

Performance improvement measurement

I put a lot of effort into PIM, working in conjunction with Mike Haynes and Peter Reed (the PSRP adviser on PIM).  Initially we attempted to devise ways of capturing linkages between the performance of the registry and the high-level objectives of each ministry.  So at the Ministry of Works we endeavoured to find ways of measuring the contribution of improved record keeping to the better maintenance of bridges and roads and to the more informed formulation of policy.  This proved impossible in practice. Eventually we adopted more mundane but readily quantifiable yardsticks of measurement: how long it takes to locate and deliver a file to an end user; how often files requested can not be found; etc. These served quite a useful purpose in enabling us to demonstrate improvements. In addition, I adopted one “litmus test” of my own, namely the level of use of the Bring Up Diary.  Where users’ confidence in the registry had been genuinely re-established it was reflected in their willingness to return files to the registry with an instruction to bring up the file at a specified later date.  Conversely, a tendency to hoard files on the desk top demonstrated a lack of faith in the system.

Appraisal and retention scheduling

The congestion of record keeping systems was a major challenge for the TRMP.  For example, in the Ministry of Agriculture we identified over 20,000 non-current files and less than 4,000 active ones.  Of the non-current files the majority related to short-lived cooperatives set up and disbanded in the 1960s.  Yet the DAP was not willing to authorise destruction.  Offered a set of criteria for appraisal he agreed that these were reasonable but declined to make any decision to adopt them.  Similarly, given a list of files demonstrating that they had not been used for many years, he agreed that they were rubbish but withheld consent for their destruction. Similar resistance had been encountered in the ministries of education and finance.

There were at least two explanations for this behaviour.  Firstly, Tanzanian civil servants were anxious about any allegation of corruption or impropriety.  Destroying records could all too easily be interpreted as “covering up”.  Also, they were accustomed to collective decision making.  For the DAP to make a decision on his own (on anything other than a routine matter) would be contrary to established norms.

Faced with this situation, I devised an alternative approach when we moved on to the Ministry of Works.  Here we convened a work-shop for the directors.  Slightly to my surprise, most of them attended and (working in several small groups) devoted an entire day to examining files, discussing their ultimate disposal and making recommendations in respect of appraisal and scheduling criteria.  Working with members of the RMT, I facilitated these discussions, identified disagreements between groups and moderated a lively discussion between them.  The findings were then referred to the directors of the Ministry (i.e. largely the same people) for formal adoption.

Whilst the work-shop approach did prove successful, it also had serious drawbacks.  Firstly, it was difficult and time-consuming to arrange for all of the key people to be in one room at the same time.  Then it was difficult to keep them there: urgent summonses to attend to crises were apt to disrupt the proceedings.  More importantly, those participating were fairly conservative and only sanctioned the destruction of absolute junk - and that after lengthy retention periods.  All in all, the work-shop methodology was beneficial in spreading a subliminal message about the importance of records management, networking the RMT with key decision-makers and in delivering symbolically important bonfires.  It would, however, be misleding to suggest that the accumulated backlog of time-expired files was effectively tackled.

Training

As new record keeping systems were introduced into ministries, so the registry staff and users received appropriate training from the TRMP.  Whilst this was successful in the short-term, it was clearly not a long-term solution to meeting the needs of the records cadre as a whole.  The dangers were well illustrated in the Ministry of Finance where the bulk of the newly trained staff were transferred to other duties.  When the Permanent Secretary discovered that able people were working in the registry service he evidently thought that this was the natural reaction.  As a result the newly introduced systems ceased to function.

So work began on devising new training packages and negotiations were entered into with training institutions.  The Civil Service Training College (CSTC) was quick to grasp the potential advantages of replacing their antiquated registry training course.  Working with the CSTC (and with input from Brandon Clark, Colin Crooks and Godwin Kobole) teaching materials, teaching methods and assessment methodologies were tested, refined and proved.  The main thrust of this work was to break away from a long-established pattern of learning by rote and to use a vocational approach instead.  That is to say, the new training courses are concerned with competence to undertake work at a variety of levels rather than with formal knowledge.

No equivalent training for users was attempted.  Wherever the TRMP was involved in creating new systems, users received training on a ministry by ministry basis.  Beyond that, however, there was little prospect of achieving user training.  In the 1960s and 1970s newly recruited public servants had been sent on an induction course which included teaching on the handling and use of records.  The entire induction process, however, had been abandoned and there was little prospect of it being reinstated for our benefit.

Vital records

Identifying and securing vital records was a natural and integral part of the work of the TRMP in those core ministries that were our prime concern.  We were aware, however, that there were other ministries, departments and agencies that were outwith our scope. For their benefit we arranged a one day seminar on the topic of vital records.  This was led by Peter Mazikana.  Chief executives were invited to attend and a large number came. Thereafter we offered continuing advice and support to those ministries, departments and agencies that wanted to take the initiative in beginning a vital records programme.  This work was particularly successful in the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education.  The newly independent Civil Aviation Authority also responded positively to the challenge.

Selling the concept

In the core ministries we sold the concept of records management in a variety of ways.  User and staff training certainly served this purpose.  So too did the appraisal and retention work-shops.  For DAPs the fact that we were freeing up office accommodation previously used for the storage of non-current records was a major selling point.  For registry staff the improvements in their working environment were certainly welcome, both on a practical level and as a visible recognition of the value of their work.

More widely, the TRMP advocated the value and relevance of good records management in terms of efficiency and accountability.  To this end we produced posters, leaflets and a video.  An “Outstanding achievement” award from the International Records Management Trust was very helpful in this respect, leading to coverage in the print and broadcast media.

Security and legal compliance

These were particularly important considerations in the Tanzanian context.  Ministers and top civil servants were concerned to control access to sensitive records.  By continuing the use of separate confidential registries for security-classified records and by rehabilitating the physical environment of those confidential registries, we were working “with the grain” of their anxieties and thereby gained their support.

The existing ordinances and standing orders on record keeping assisted us by virtue of their emphasis on due care and attention in the creation, use and retention of records.  They worked against us, however, in respect of appraisal and scheduling.  The established interpretation of the relevant standing orders was that they prohibited the destruction of records. In my view this was a perverse interpretation of the text - but it was a deeply held belief that this was what they decreed.  Partly in response to this situation, the TRMP promoted a new Public Records Act.  The text of this Act specifically sanctioned the destruction of time-expired records, subject to sensible procedural safeguards.  Unfortunately the Act did not pass sufficiently quickly for its provisions to make any practical difference to our work in the core ministries.

In tandem with promoting records legislation, we also lobbied for the transfer of the National Archives from the Ministry of Education to the Civil Service Department.  The objective was to unite responsibility for the entire records continuum in a single department of government.

Conclusion

At the final Output to Purpose Review (OPR) the TRMP was assessed as having produced 85% of deliverables, on budget and within the allocated timescale.  As scores over 50% are generally considered favourable (and figures below 40% are not uncommon) this represented an agreeable endorsement.

Since the OPR was conducted (in the summer of 2000) I have kept in touch with various former colleagues in Tanzania.  On the basis of the information that they have supplied, I understand that the vocational training provisions put in place for registry staff are functioning well and are regarded within the Civil Service Training College as a possible model for the kind of course they aspire to develop for the future.  It is also clear that most of the record keeping systems that we rehabilitated are still working well and now possess a more skilled workforce and a better image in the eyes of their ministerial colleagues.  There is one exception.  So far as I have been able to discover, this solitary instance is due to the transfer of unsuitable staff into the registry: this was intended as a disciplinary measure against the individuals in question but inevitably has had an adverse impact on record keeping.

The principle legacies of the TRMP to the National Archives were a National Records Centre and a cadre of fully trained, experienced and confident records managers.  The National Records Centre reportedly continues to work well and has begun to feed records of long-term value into the National Archives (which had received comparitively few accessions in the previous decade).  The cadre of trained records managers still exists but a few of the RMT members have transferred to unrelated duties.  In the year following the project’s conclusion system rehabilitation work was undertaken at the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education (where good working relationships had been established as a result of our work on vital records).  Now, although the capacity is still present, pro-active records management work seems to have gradually lost momentum.

Looking to the future I think that it is likely, but not certain, that the available indigenous talent will be remobilised.  A major rehabilitation of the payroll has made it evident that there are serious problems with personnel records systems.  Putting them in order would certainly require the utilisation of the existing cadre of records managers and would, in the process, further develop in-country capacity.