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