Monitoring Information Management Practice (NZ0021)

Commitment 10: Monitoring the effectiveness of public body
information management practices
Objective:
To make the management of government information more visible and
therefore transparent by developing and implementing a monitoring
framework that supports public reporting on the effectiveness of
information management by central and local government agencies.
Ambition:
New Zealanders and public agencies will be able to see the standards
for management of government information and the rates of progress
central and local government agencies are making towards meeting those
standards.
Status quo:
There is no visible or consistent, relevant available set of measures to
provide assurance that government information is being managed to meet
the standards and public expectations of access to information that are
characteristics of open government. The public currently have no way
of accessing government’s performance in reaching the level of good,
consistent management of information necessary to ensure accountability.
Any information that is available is not easily discoverable or understandable
for the public.
We are committed to lifting performance and building public trust and
confidence in the management of government information in accordance
with the Information and Records Management Standard, so that good
practice is embedded, measured in our systems and easily accessed and
understood by the public. Lead agency: Department of Internal Affairs (Archives New Zealand)
Timeline: 1 July 2018 – 30 June 2020
Commitment 10: Monitoring the effectiveness of public body information
management practices
OGP Values Transparency,
Accountability
Verifiable and measurable milestones to fulfil
the commitment
Start date End date
Develop a proposed monitoring framework that
reflects the Information and Records Management
Standard and includes a suite of consistent and
relevant measures to enable public visibility of the
effectiveness of agency information management.
This could include technology to enable a wholeof-system view of government information holdings
and the effectiveness of its management
Commenced
July 2018
December
2018
Communication and engagement: the proposed
framework and its potential options will be
consulted on with regulated parties and other
potential users
Commenced
July 2018
July 2019
Rolling it out. Ensuring that the implemented
monitoring activity is useful for, and easily used by,
the regulated agencies to improve performance
and that a common view of results is available to all
stakeholders (including the public)
April 2019 July 2020

10. Monitoring the effectiveness of public body information management practices [113]

Objective: “To make the management of government information more visible and therefore transparent by developing and implementing a monitoring framework that supports public reporting on the effectiveness of information management by central and local government agencies”.

Milestones:

1. “Develop a proposed monitoring framework that reflects the Information and Records Management Standard and includes a suite of consistent and relevant measures to enable public visibility of the effectiveness of agency information management”;
2. “Communication and engagement: the proposed framework and its potential options will be consulted on with regulated parties and other potential users”;
3. “Rolling it out. Ensuring that the implemented monitoring activity is useful for, and easily used by, the regulated agencies to improve performance and that a common view of results is available to all stakeholders (including the public)”.

Start Date: July 2018

End Date: July 2020

Context and Objectives

The objective of this commitment is to measure the effectiveness of central and local government agencies’ information management practices and make the results publicly visible.

This commitment considers government’s issue that the public does not know and cannot monitor how well government agencies and Ministers of the Crown subject to the Public Records Act 2005 (PRA) [114] comply with it and the Information and Records Management Standard. [115] Understanding how well government-held information is managed was raised in the action plan’s public submissions and during the action plan development. [116] Archives NZ’s (Archives) engagement work on its Regulatory programme in 2018 found “dissatisfaction” with the current monitoring and reporting function. [117]

This work will provide a framework for Archives to monitor and report publicly on the information management practices of all public sector (central and local government) agencies and Ministers of the Crown subject to the PRA, thus filling a current gap. Public access to the results could increase trust in central and local government’s information management practice and encourage under-performing agencies to raise their performance. Archives advise that the public will be able to find out which organisations have practices in place that support easily locatable, usable information and who Archives will need to work with more closely to lift performance. [118] However, this commitment lacks actions to address under-performance.

The commitment meets OGP’s access to information and civic participation values as it discloses new government information and engages with the public to consider framework options.

Archives will consult with the public and government agencies on the proposed framework, finalise and implement it, publish ‘a common view’ of the results and work with agencies to use the results to improve their performance. This work is part of Archives’ ongoing Regulatory Programme. [119] The milestones are specific enough to verify their completion objectively through Archive’s relevant webpages. Should Archives implement a technology solution, an approach that includes an open by design system is recommended. A stakeholder suggested that the Government Chief Digital Office (GDCO) joins as a commitment lead to assist with this stage. [120] Archives advise that they are using agile methodologies, that co-leadership would compromise the powers vested in the independent Chief Archivist through the Public Records Act 2005, but that they are working closely with the GCDO around potential tools. [121]

If fully implemented as designed, this commitment would have only minor potential impact due to its limited scope, no new activities after April 2019 and the lack of specificity about how Archives will drive improvement by under-performing agencies. Transformative reform would require Archives to actively lead and drive improved sector performance, introduce a technology solution that provides easy public visibility of the results and survey the public as to whether the rates of progress have met this commitment’s ambition.

Next steps

If this commitment is carried forward to the next action plan or if there are improvements to the implementation of this commitment, the IRM researcher recommends work to:

• commence and implement a programme to drive improvement by under-performing agencies; and to
• commence work to seek public feedback on whether this commitment’s objective has been met.

10. Monitoring the effectiveness of public body information management practices

Complete:

This work delivered Clause 9.2 of Archive New Zealand’s 2016 Regulatory Standard which sought to “implement a targeted, intelligence-led monitoring framework that uses all our monitoring, auditing and reporting tools in an integrated, complementary way and that covers all regulated organisations.” [126]

When the action plan was released in December 2018, Milestone 1’s external engagement was already completed and Milestone 2’s work to develop an annual survey of public sector information management (IM) was underway. Milestone 3 saw annual surveys between 2019–2021 and published results, [127] as well as a new information management maturity assessment (IMMA) product [128] and a refreshed Archive New Zealand (ANZ) audit programme. [129] The completed monitoring framework [130] is part of a larger work programme to implement the long-term strategy, Archives 2057. [131]

Public engagement involved consultation in 2018 with information managers, targeted online engagement in 2019–2020 on the survey and audit monitoring mechanisms, information sessions, and two external advisory groups reviewing and testing the IMMA. A Guide to the Monitoring Framework was released in July 2019. [132]

Public offices and local authorities can self-assess at any stage, such as before an audit. [133] ANZ started applying the framework in 2020 and has scheduled 143 audits between 2021–2022 and 2024–2025. It intends to audit ministers’ offices and state schools, but this expansion of the audit programme would need dedicated additional resources. [134] As of 30 October 2021, it had proactively published 29 audit reports, each comprising a detailed external assessment and a letter from the Chief Archivist instructing the organisation to create an action plan for the recommended changes in IM practice, against which ANZ could track progress. [135] Survey and audit findings are also published in the Chief Archivist’s annual reports on government recordkeeping [136] and raw data from the 2019–2020 survey was released as open data on the open data platform, data.govt.nz. [137]

Following analysis of seven of the published 2021 audit reports, [138] the IRM researcher concludes that the new monitoring framework covers all areas of information management practice required by NZ’s information and records management standard. The IRM researcher recommends that ANZ adds the IMMA product and tools to its Monitoring Framework website [139] and updates progress on its OGP commitment webpage. [140]

The mandatory self-assessment before an audit and ANZ’s proactive release of the details of external audits are both new. There has been media interest in the annual survey on record-keeping practices. [141] It is too early to assess whether this monitoring framework is appropriate for the wide variety of public offices, which range from a few to thousands of staff. This work has set the foundation for ANZ to publicly show agencies' information management practices. To improve their performance, it must now show how it will monitor action plans, including rates of progress and compliance with the duty to create and maintain records.