Ensuring that appropriate records are created and captured is at the core of an organisations recordkeeping and can eliminate the breakdowns in accountability listed below.

Alteration of Records

Breaches of Privacy

Breakdowns in Accountability

Catastrophes

Deliberate or Illegal Destruction of Records

Inadequate Corporate Recordkeeping Systems

Inappropriate Disposal of Records

Non-compliance

Operational and Organisational Failures

Breakdowns in Accountability

U.S. Demands Newark Return $6.9 Million in Housing Aid (after failing to provide adequate documentation)

Federal housing officials criticized the Newark Housing Authority for paying the City of Newark $6.9 million in federal money to add police and health services at its apartment buildings and then failing to document whether the residents ever received the extra aid.

Source The New York Times February 16, 2006

Treasurer requests probe of missing records

The 'Sports Rorts Affair'

"The 'Sports Rorts Affair' is a celebrated Australian case that illustrates much about the relationship between poor recordkeeping and incompetent, negligent or corrupt public administration.

It involved the former Minister for Sports in Australia, Ros Kelly, her failure to account for decisions relating to the award of government grants to sporting bodies, and her inability to counter allegations that she had distributed the money disproportionately to marginal electorates to gain electoral advantage for her Party. The Affair centered around the use of a whiteboard to record the process of decision making that went on in the ministerial office - and its subsequent erasure."

More information: James McKinnon, 'The "Sports Rorts" Affair: A Case Study in Recordkeeping, Accountability and Media Reporting", New Zealand Archivist, Vol. V, No. 4, Summer / December 1994, pp. 1-5.

Source John Curtain Prime Ministerial Library

Report of the Royal Commission into Commercial Activities of Government and other Matters

One of the best statements in recent years relating to the purposes of proper recordkeeping comes from the Royal Commissioners who investigated commercial activities of the Western Australian government from the late 1980s. This came to be known as “WA Inc.” It refers broadly to the role of recordkeeping in relation to effective democratic accountability and historical accountability.

Source John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library

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