National Archives Releases Report on Federal Agency Records Management Programs
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), College Park, Md., has released the report, “Records Management Self-Assessment 2009: An Assessment of Records Management Programs in the Federal Government.”
Last September, NARA issued a mandatory records management self-assessment to 245 federal cabinet-level agencies and their components and to independent agencies. The goal of the self-assessment was to determine how effective federal agencies are in meeting the statutory and regulatory requirements for records management. The resulting report has been transmitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and to the Oversight and Appropriations committees in the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.
NARA says approximately 90 percent of the federal agencies contacted responded to the self-assessment. The report finds that 79 percent of agencies are at either a “High” (36 percent) or “Moderate” (43 percent) risk of improper destruction of records. The findings indicate that federal agencies are falling short in carrying out their records management responsibilities, particularly regarding the use and growth of electronic records, according to NARA.
David Ferriero, archivist of the United States, says the success of the Open Government initiative “hinges on the ability of each federal agency to effectively manage its records.” He adds, “this level of risk is of great concern to me, and the National Archives will take action with federal agencies to address this unacceptable risk.”
The report is available at www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/resources/self-assesment.pdf)