1: Accountability
Assign a senior executive to oversee the recordkeeping program and delegate responsibility to appropriate individuals, adopt
policies and procedures to guide personnel, and ensure auditability.
Other Information:
A basic premise to sound recordkeeping is that within each organization, someone is designated as responsible for the overall
program. This does not have to be a full-time responsibility, but it does need to be formally designated to someone in a senior-level
position who has access to other senior executives and can ensure program implementation across the organization. The accountable
senior executive will oversee the overall recordkeeping program, although this executive often will assign or designate other
personnel to roles and tasks involved in different parts of the recordkeeping program. A major responsibility for this executive
is program development. As an on-going program, recordkeeping requires the program to be monitored for compliance and to identify
any areas requiring improvement. The matters identified during the monitoring lead to program improvements, which the senior
executive will oversee at the appropriate level. Governance should be established through the organization, assigning defined
roles and responsibilities to different staff so it is clear where responsibilities reside and how the chain of command works
to build, implement, and upgrade the recordkeeping program. For example, sub-committees can be designated to help build policies
or to define and implement technology. For staff to know how to implement the recordkeeping program, it is essential to have
program policies and procedures that are documented, formally approved, and communicated to personnel. Updates to the policy
and procedures should be available to staff, as should recordkeeping training. All of this is designed to further standardize
the program across the organization. This standardization enhances staff’s efforts to effectively implement the recordkeeping
program. Auditability is the process designed to prove the program is accomplishing its goals, while seeking areas for improvement
to further protect the organization and its records. Staff should be able to demonstrate program awareness. Records should
be retained for the right amount of time and disposed of when no longer required. Policies should be kept up-to-date and cover
all records media. Auditing should verify the status of complying with these standards. An organization’s recordkeeping audits
should be reported to the board of directors (or its audit committee) to show program adherence in accordance with documented
policies and procedures, requirements (for retention, privacy, access to records, and access controls, for example), and the
organization’s goals for its recordkeeping program.
Objective(s):
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