Record management (RM) is monitoring and supervising the administration of paper or any other digital record in organizations. RM entail some of the activities such as creating, maintaining, receipting, and disposing of records that range from a wide perspective. Any municipality can have many ways to manage the resources as long as there are accountability and transparency (Hollick & Parsons, 1984). The purpose of record management is to ensure that the municipality can retrieve the record when required, control cost, and streamline data and information, among other key purposes.
Through RM, effective procurement procedures and stock management can produce significant savings for the municipality. If a municipality utilizes a systematic approach in record management, it will also save the agency any potential legal problems that usually come up from invertedly distorted documents (Hollick & Parsons, 1984). When the municipality has a proper RM system, it complies with the set rules that concern the disclosure of data and information per Ontario’s legislative act on freedom of information.
A proper RM guarantees the municipality safety of the equipment and facilities that the agency owns because there is insurance coverage that can compensate losses and damages in case of any uncertainty happens. As the Ontario government mandate, municipalities can be sure of the provision of emergency services if they prepare business continuity metrics (Tomley, 2020). The best way to show that the municipality is growing is by giving a rationale towards every action taken by the municipality officials. Therefore, all actions and transactions should be documented by the necessary parties to be used in appraisal or audit by the government officials.
Current trends in basic record management in the municipalities include the following: first, RM has modern and up-to-date method that is used in purchasing known as bidding. The process of bidding involves when the municipality receives orders requesting to get items from tender firms. Various methods are used under this perspective, such as sole and single sourcing. Sole sourcing is when the procurement of goods or services by the municipality is unique to a given vendor, and it is not easy to obtain from other sources.
Single sourcing includes buying items from a particular supplier rather than allowing firms to place bids to offer the same goods or services (Hollick & Parsons, 1984). The other trend includes Vendors of Record, which means typical bidding where a company that bids the lowest amount wins the tender. Others are two envelope systems, in-house bidding, and a quotation request.
One important thing under trends in RM is the Request for Proposal (RFP) that is widely applied nowadays where companies do not do the tendering process. It involves an official invitation by the municipality government for a given offer to supply items. In this case, the municipality asks for a response on how the process can be. Then it is subjected to evaluation to determine the best overall concurrence in the purchasing process. The approach is commonly used nowadays by municipals because of uncertainties that get involved in requirements for a municipality’s availability of product or service. It is important to know that RFP is used for larger transactions involving comprehensive processes that require submission of securities and contract signing (Agrawal & Pahuja, 2020). The trends, however, do not apply in all regions as globalization has not delivered all innovative ideas and strategies everywhere.
Steps involved in RM include securing management support, which plays a key role in introducing new programs in a municipality. It is more of the senior management that communicates the RM program’s objectives to the municipality employees (Agrawal & Pahuja, 2020). Second is record inventory preparation that involves what records are being handled, who, how, and when the records are supposed to be used (Hollick & Parsons, 1984). The third step is establishing a records retention schedule whereby they should relate to both active and inactive storage with the municipality noting down any discrepancy in the records management.
This step is implemented lawfully by setting the value of records for administrative, archival, legal, and fiscal purposes. The fourth step is establishing a records point for records that are not active. At this step, a record series classified fewer than three times monthly is taken from the regular workstation to more economical storage that serves for inactive records.
The fifth step is to identify and protect important records y giving special attention to the records that form the skeleton element of the municipality, whereby they can guide in case of natural disaster occurrence. The sixth step is establishing a corporate file categorization system. That is done concerning a digital recording that can serve as a long-term solution for that case. The seventh step involves classifying files and other retrieval systems (Hollick & Parsons, 1984). The implementation of this step is determined by the purpose of the record and why it has to be treasured. The eighth step is visiting the retention for capturing legislative changes, which must be done regularly. The last step is the preparation of stock of existing records. Record management is important because it can be used by a municipality to monitor the progress, testify in legal grounds, present in audits and develop the working environment for employees.
References
Agrawal, N., & Pahuja, J. (2020). Record storage and management system using blockchain. November 2020, 6(11), 72-78. Web.
Hollick, T., & Parsons, S. (1984). How to procedure manual re preparing municipal reports and making effective presentations to the council (1st ed). Association of Municipal Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario.
Tomley, H. (2020). Flourishing financial operations through smarter intelligence. American Journal of Business and Management Research, 1(3), 13-18. Web.