Monitoring and evaluation of records Management programs in selected government Ministries in Kenya

Abstract

Organizations ought to regularly measure performance of records management programs within their administration to determine how they affect their service delivery and establish how the programs can be improved. Problems associated with service delivery, accountability and transparency in government ministries have for a long time been attributed to poor records management. The study aim was to assess the state of records management programs in the selected government ministries with a view to developing a monitoring and evaluation framework geared towards improving the quality of records management in order to enhance service delivery. This was achieved through six study objectives, namely, to: investigate the state of records management programs in the selected government ministries; assess the integration of records management as part of business processes of the selected ministries; investigate whether audits carried out in other areas of organizational activities also extends to records management programs; establish the mechanisms and tools used in conducting records management audits and or evaluations; establish the standards and best practices used to benchmark records management in the selected ministries and last but not least, develop an audit, monitoring and evaluation framework to enhance records management and service delivery in the selected government ministries. ISO 15489, Records Management Capacity Assessment System and program theory were the theorical framework that informed the study. A mixed research design was used where questionnaires were the main data collection tools while interviews were used as supplementary tools. The sample size consisted of 93 respondents who were selected through purposive sampling from a target population of 636. The study established that records management programs in the selected ministries did not satisfy user needs as 67.3% of the respondents said they occasionally accessed requested records. It further established that there were gaps in the tools that were used in monitoring and evaluation of records management programs. It was concluded that there was poor state of records management in the ministries as their records management programs did not satisfy user needs. The study recommends development of human resource capacity; regular records management audits; adoption and implementation of standards of best practices among others to address the identified problems. It also provided a monitoring and evaluation framework that, if adopted by the ministries, will help improve their records management programs and enhance service delivery.