A failure to manage records can lead to the kind of operational and organisational failures listed below. If you are struggling to get support for proper recordkeeping these examples may add weight to your business case.

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

Operational and Organisational Failures

Computer glitch leads to customer details being attached to a bulk email

Vehicle Testing New Zealand is investigating a possible computer glitch after an email was sent out with an attachment that included the names and addresses of 1780 motorists. The email was a registration reminder and the attachment contained the details of others who were also sent the reminder.

Source News Talk Nov 18, 2005

Concerns arising from Investigations into the Department of Community Services

In a Special Report to Parliament April 2002 the NSW Ombudsman reported evidence of poor record keeping practices. The report states that the current recordkeeping practices of DoCS mean that workers may not have known all information when required to make serious decisions in potentially life threatening situations. This has implications for staff safety when entering the home of a family they are unfamiliar with as well as for the quality of the decisions that can be made in such circumstances.

Source DOCS — CRITICAL ISSUES Concerns arising from investigations into the Department of Community Services

A special report to Parliament under s 31 of the Ombudsman Act 1974

Victoria, Pleasant Creek Training Centre

Inquiry Report to the Director-General of Community Services Victoria, April 1991

This report dealt with incidents of sexual abuse of intellectually disabled residents of the Pleasant Creek Training Centre. Poor and negligent recordkeeping was found to be a contributing factor including incomplete, inaccurate, inconsistent and missing incident and investigation reports, poor security resulting in unauthorised access to records by night supervisors, and inadequate cross-referencing to Community Services Victoria’s central filing system.

Source Archivists at Risk: Accountability and the Role of the Professional Society Presented to the Associate Professor Sue McKemmish and Glenda Acland Australian Society of Archivists 1999 Conference.

Outsourcing of the Victorian Ambulance Service

An experiment in the outsourcing of previously public ambulance services to private enterprise that resulted in negligence and death. In virtually all of the arrangements relating to consultancies and outsourcing, key documentation supporting critical management decisions could not be produced by the private contractor Metropolitan Ambulance Service.

More information: Victorian Auditor General's Office, Metropolitan Ambulance Service Contractual and Outsourcing Practices, Special Report 49, June 1997, Executive Summary

Source John Curtain Prime Ministerial Library

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