“Success of MMDAs in their day-to-day activities thrive on probity, good governance, transparency, and accountable service delivery, a key component of which is an effective and efficient record management system,” he noted.

Mr Mensah stressed that the success of local government units, particularly MMDAs, was not complete without an effective and efficient records management system and development of a comprehensive Records Management Manual for the Local Government Service would reverse the trend.

He made the observation at a nationwide series of workshops for Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) in the Volta and Oti regions to discuss the development of the manual to operationalise it for an effective and efficient Records Management Unit (RMU), and a Fixed Asset Management (FAM) system for Local Government Service.

It was developed with the support and assistance of the Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA) to guide the establishment of records management unit at the Assemblies towards efficient and effective system of control of records under a three-year project which began in 2020.

According to Mr Mensah, challenges of ghost names, other corrupt administrative practices could be traced to bad record management, establishment of personal record units at offices and advised MMDCEs to help establish and maintain strong lines of administrative procedure to ensure uninterrupted flow of correspondence with the people.

In an address read on his behalf, Dr Ato Arthur, the Head of Local Government Service, said the manual was a game changer for the status quo of records management and address challenges due to how value of records had greatly appreciated with passage of Right to Information Act.

He appealed to Assemblies to assist and support transformation of records management regime since quality of services provided to their clients largely depended on how well they manage and provided information for effective and efficient decision-making.

“Since passage of the Right to Information Act, 2019 (ACT 989), it has become expensive to have disorganised records management system, especially in tandem with role of MMDAs in governance system, aside maintaining sound record-keeping, will provide training for records management staff, and work towards inter-unit collaboration,” Dr Arthur disclosed.