Digestibilidad Verdadera y Valor Biológico Verdadero (DV y VB)

Unfortunately, Swaziland has no records policy for the ministries/departments. The study showed that, in general, the ministries still follow the registry systems established during the colonial era which are no longer appropiate to the needs of the present day government. Ministries have grown and expanded ten fold, new services have been introduced and the number of personnel increased. The registries can no longer cope with the complexity of managing the records. The tendency to continue using procedures without any real attention being paid to their maintenance and upgrading has resulted in poor filing practices and the slow movement of files and information. The practices that did work well in colonial times have broken down.

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Many of the procedures necessary to operate efficient registry services are not in place. There are many reasons for this inadequancy. There is no registry manual in the whole of the civil service. Hence the creation of records is not controlled. The registry staff are not adequately trained; hence they do not see the importance of their work. The Registry Supervisors/Clerical Officers report to Executive Officer and depend on their advice, yet the Executive Officers have often never worked in the registry. Surely, it is a question of the blind man leading a blind man.

Sometimes the attitude of management towards registry staff is appalling. More often than not, the users will not take advice from the registry staff and expect their orders to be carried^no matter how damaging they might be. In these circumstances, there tends to be a breakdown in communication due to mistrust. The result is that the whole registry system is collapsing. As it is, registry management in Swaziland needs a complete overhauling.

The areas in which improvements could be achieved are analysed in the remaining sections of this chapter. Where appropiate, the practices prevailing in Swaziland are described and observations are made on improvements which could be introduced. These sections cover the creation of records, mail management and filing, maintenance and use of files, security and storage, vital records and the need for

a manual.

4.3 CREATION

4.3.1 Benefits of controlling Creation

One of the benefits of a records management programme is that it provides a means of controlling the quality and quantity of records. When proper controls on the creation of records exist, there is overall improvement of office administration and procedure. The following are among the most important means of control; correspondence improvement, reports control, forms control, and control of internal office instructions and directives.* A successful records management programme for Swaziland would need to address each of these areas.

4.3.2 Correspondence Control

Who may create records? In any organization records are created by top executives and ordinary officers. The records are created to convey information which serves as a memory for the organization. Correspondence including letters, telexes, faxes, etc originates in a number of ways. including dictation, handwritten drafts, word

* Robek, M.F., Brown, G.F., and Maldke, W.O. Information and Records Management. ENCINO: Glencoe Publishing Co., 1987. p . 7.

processors and telecommunication systems. Correspondence control at the earliest stage is fundamental. Therefore, officers should be encouraged to create only essential records. Telephones should be used extensively for official communication as well as arranging for personal contact.

However, in Swaziland approximately ninety per cent of telephone conversations of civil servants are absolutely private. Instead of using telephones, officers prefer to write letters and memoranda simply to impress their superiors that they are working hard. They also tend to copy correspondence to many more people than need to see it to show that they are working. At the end of the day, it is discovered that much of what they have written is of little or no importance. For instance, when an officer is reprimanded for a minor offence he has committed, the letter is copied to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Public Service, Secretary of the Civil Service Board, Accountant General, Audit General and Secretary to Cabinet. Surely, all these people do not need this kind of information. A clear policy and set of procedures regarding correspondance management could eliminate many of these ills.

4.3.3 Reports Control

Under this heading, the discussion will be centred on the role of reports in government, objectives of reports management and the benefits of reports management. Reports play a vital role in government ministries/departments. They provide information that allows government officials to follow the progress of specific projects; obtain factual measurements of specific conditions; measure results in quantitative terms; recognize trends, problems, and factors affecting programme direction and evaluation; and evaluate overall performance.^

Reports management has many benefits. It aids government in providing a systematic means of improving the flow and contents of information; helps to reduce voluminous data accumulation by eliminating unnecessary duplication of reports; provides the means for measuring the value of information against the cost of collecting it; and improves the reporting methods and techniques by applying information processing techniques and reducing government's costs.* The main goal of reports management is to improve the quality and economy of reporting by providing management with the information it needs at the right time, in the right format and at the lowest cost possible.

* Ibid.,p.494. * Ibid.,p.494.

In Swaziland, reports are produced everyday. Instead of circulating them to officers who are likely to take action, senior officers demand to have their own copies. Hence many offices are full of reports which are gathering dust. Moreover, there is no reports control. The officers simply produce reports in order to have their names in them. There is a need for the ministries to produce fewer reports in order to improve the quality of reporting to enable management to make the right decisions.

4.3.4 Forms Control

When properly managed, analysed and designed fo^m a systems prospective, forms become tools which may be used to organise, collect and transmit information. Therefore, well used forms enhance the flow of work through an office or entire ministry and government as a whole, increase operational efficiency and effectiveness and reduce costs.^

In Swaziland, forms management has not been developed and nobody has addressed the issue for the need for forms control. Many forms are designed and used by government officials to organise, check and transmit information. The officers spend a lot of time filling the forms which are poorly designed often the information is duplicated elsewhere, and sometimes it is not of use to anyone. There is a need for the government to embark on forms management.

^ Records Management. A.Morddell [et.al]. Op.cit. p . 109. 98

perhaps, after records management programme has been established.

4.3.5 Control of Internal Office Instructions and Directives

Directives management refers to the policy and procedure statements issued by an organization. A policy is associated with what a person should do, and how it should be done is a procedure.* For our study, directives cover office notices, bulletins, board notices, management statements, circulars etc. These comprise the policies and procedures of an organization. In many offices directives are consolidated into a manual or staff handbook.

A few ministries in Swaziland have clearly defined instructions and some types of instructions are applied uniformily throughout the civil service, notably those concerning finance. However, in many areas Swaziland Government officers have no clear guidance whatsoever; therefore officers perform their work as they think best or at least easiest. In other words, they perform an operation without any policy.

If a department is to be well organized, co-ordinated and properly administered, its objectives and policies should be spelt out in no uncertain terms. Swaziland

m i n i s t r i e s / d e p a r t m e n t s need m a n u a l s or handbooks, i n c l u d i n g

r e g i s t r y manuals, b a s e d on t heir operations.