Although all organizations should have a system for organizing the documents they produce or receive in the course of their work to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in their operations and to provide business continuity, the Access to Information Act places particular importance on this activity. Documents, if they are to be made available when requested, must be organized in a systematic way so they can be easily retrieved.
CEO’s should assign responsibility for the care and custody of the records of their entity (even if there is no central registry) to an officer who ideally should have training in records management. In many smaller entities, this is not always possible. Training in records management can be obtained at MIND and at other institutions. The support staff should also have training in this field. The basic responsibilities of this officer are to
Be familiar with the ATI Act , Regulations and the type of documents which would fall into the ‘exempt’ category
Ensure that listings exist for all documents in the entity for the past 30 years. A listing would detail the title of every file within the organization and their exact location. If the organization is unable to produce a listing of the file titles, a listing of the file series or categories should be done. The listing of documents is strongly recommended in cases where due to a shortage of staff and other resources, an inventory cannot be performed.
Be aware of the location of these documents. This applies to documents in the offices of senior staff especially that of the CEO of the entity.
This officer can be assisted in his/her work by the appointment of a Records Committee comprised of representatives of the sections/divisions to oversee the organization of the documents, assign retention schedules and to advise on ATI requests
