The purpose of this study was to critically analyse the evidence-based revelations from the South African Office of the Auditor-General on the records management challenges being encountered in the local government sector. The aim of the study was the analysis of available evidence and the proposal of solutions for collaborative planning and implementation. The lack of strategic planning in ensuring the accessibility of authentic information sources required during auditing remains unchallenged by the South African public archivists and records managers. These audit reports are required to demonstrate governance, transparency and accountability. This information held in the records of local government is also required to satisfy service delivery and plan development ventures. The World Bank, International Monetary Fund and United Nations formulated an ambitious agenda to eradicate world poverty by 2025. Eight millennium development goals were identified that would provide impoverished communities with better access to basic services and conditions spurring sustainable development. Governance-based criteria were identified as barometers to gauge transparency, accountability, respect for the rule of law and citizens’ rights. Consolidated audited reports from 2000 to 2013 were scrutinised to unravel the conundrums relating to governance, transparency and the management of public sector information sources. According to the 2013 report, only 5% of the local government sector managed to attain clean audits. Related evidence revealed in the unclean audit reports and media narratives related to service delivery and community protests. The approach used for the study was the qualitative methodology, regarded as an appropriate method for the archival discipline. This research method allowed for the incorporation of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary fields of interest. The case study method design enabled the focus of the study to be on local governments and six selected community development ventures in different areas of South Africa. The latter method enabled information collection from records officials and persons involved with socio-economic development projects. Sound interventions are needed to ensure evidence-based governance. This, in turn, would create favourable conditions for development endeavours in post-apartheid South Africa. / Information Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Information Science)

No description available.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / As medical data continues to transition to electronic formats, opportunities arise for researchers to use this microdata to discover patterns and increase knowledge that can improve patient care. Now more than ever, it is critical to protect the identities of the patients contained in these databases. Even after removing obvious “identifier” attributes, such as social security numbers or first and last names, that clearly identify a specific person, it is possible to join “quasi-identifier” attributes from two or more publicly available databases to identify individuals. K-anonymity is an approach that has been used to ensure that no one individual can be distinguished within a group of at least k individuals. However, the majority of the proposed approaches implementing k-anonymity have focused on improving the efficiency of algorithms implementing k-anonymity; less emphasis has been put towards ensuring the “utility” of anonymized data from a researchers’ perspective. We propose a new data utility measurement, called the research value (RV), which extends existing utility measurements by employing data constraints rules that are designed to improve the effectiveness of queries against the anonymized data. To anonymize a given raw dataset, two algorithms are proposed that use predefined generalizations provided by the data content expert and their corresponding research values to assess an attribute’s data utility as it is generalizing the data to ensure k-anonymity. In addition, an automated algorithm is presented that uses clustering and the RV to anonymize the dataset. All of the proposed algorithms scale efficiently when the number of attributes in a dataset is large.

Records management plays a significant role in ensuring accountability, transparency and good governance. Chapter nine institutions, on the other hand, are democratic institutions responsible for the promotion of accountability, transparency and good governance in the public sector through various forms such as investigation, reporting and recommendations. Although the regulatory role of records management in the public sector is the responsibility of the National Archives and Records Service of South Africa (NARSSA), it seems that this responsibility is cumbersome for the organisation as several scholars concur that the public sector is characterised by poor records management. As a result, NARSSA is unable to support governmental bodies in managing records properly. Given the position of chapter nine institutions in government and their mandate as set out by the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, these institutions are able to hold the state accountable for their actions, unlike NARSSA. This study adopted the World Bank’s evolution of good governance as the conceptual framework to investigate the contribution of selected chapter nine institutions, specifically the Auditor-General South Africa (AGSA) and the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) towards records management in the public sector in South Africa. Qualitative data was collected through document analysis and interviews with purposively selected participants from the AGSA and the SAHRC. At the AGSA, participants were records management professionals and auditors, whereas at the SAHRC only staff members responsible for the implementation of access to information legislation were interviewed. Although the study established that records management is a key enabler to the process of access to information and the auditing process, the relationship was not fully explored by the SAHRC, which has little or no interaction with the NARSSA. However, the AGSA has taken the lead in this regard as it has managed to develop a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with NARSSA. Organised records enable the AGSA to audit the public sector and to facilitate access to records in terms of freedom of information legislation. The study concludes that there is a need for chapter nine institutions to work hand in hand with NARSSA for the purpose of fostering proper record keeping in the public sector. It is recommended that this study be extended to other chapter nine institutions such as the Public Protector. / Information Science / M. Inf. (Archival Studies)

Despite the importance of the visibility and accessibility of public archives repositories, various scholars agreed that these repositories in eastern and southern Africa are not known to and are accessed by few people. This study utilised the concept of soft power as a framework to examine the visibility and accessibility of public archives repositories in South Africa with the view to suggest ways to enhance it. A quantitative approach, informed by post-positivist paradigm was employed, using questionnaires, interviews, content analysis and observation of landmarks to collect data. Public archives repositories in South Africa, Friends of Archives, legislation, annual reports, and landmarks were the universe of analysis whereas archivists working in public programming sections, deputy director of Friends of archives, 2012 to 2016 annual reports, archival legislation, social media links and the public display signage of the Limpopo, Mpumalanga, National Archives and Records Services of South Africa (NARSSA), National Film, Video and Sound Archives (NFVSA), served as a unit of analysis or source of information. The study revealed that collaboration with a good partner, especially civil society, was a key for successful public programming at the lowest cost. Whereas the KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Western Cape landmarks are visible, the study found that NARSSA, NFVSA, Free State, Limpopo, Northern Cape, North-West and Eastern Cape archives repositories could not easily draw potential users to archives. Furthermore, only Northern Cape and Western Cape provincial archive are active on social media through their departments. The study recommended a visibility and accessibility framework that will provide a foundation and insight on how best public archives could develop and implement integrated and yet impactful public programming activities with less expenses. / Information Science / M. Inf. (Information Science)

Considerando a necessidade de comunicação entre a administração pública e a sociedade e seus cidadãos, da maneira mais efetiva e transparente possível, o objetivo desta pesquisa foi analisar o conjunto de elementos de transparência das informações públicas apresentadas pelos gestores nos portais dos Institutos Federais da Região Sul do Brasil. Trata-se de uma pesquisa quantitativa e qualitativa, aplicada quanto à sua finalidade, e exploratória quanto ao seu objetivo. No intuito de explicar a problemática a partir dos referenciais teóricos publicados, foi utilizado omo procedimento a pesquisa bibliográfica e o posterior estudo de campo nos seis Institutos Federais da Região Sul do Brasil. Assim, o referencial teórico abordou aspectos sobre a transparência pública e conceitos de informação e comunicação no setor público, apresentando índices de mensuração de transparência pública. O levantamento de dados junto aos Institutos buscou mensurar nos portais o grau de transparência das informações apresentadas pelos gestores, aplicando instrumento de pesquisa que permitiu a obtenção de índice de transparência para 11 categorias de itens pesquisados, além de verificar a presença nos portais dos itens considerados obrigatórios pela Lei de Acesso à Informação. Em um segundo momento, buscou verificar, por meio de questionário, a percepção dos gestores dos Institutos sobre os aspectos que compõem o tema proposto, a fim de observar como acontece esse processo de comunicação entre os órgãos públicos e o cidadão. Os principais resultados obtidos enfatizam, de maneira geral, um baixo índice de divulgação das informações públicas, com menor média de divulgação para informações sobre responsabilidade social, ambiental e econômica, e maior média para as informações relacionadas aos dados gerais da instituição, desde sua estrutura administrativa até sua regulamentação. Também foi observado que nenhuma instituição pesquisada cumpre integralmente com as exigências da Lei de Acesso à Informação. Os resultados sobre a percepção do gestor demonstram uma tendência de divulgar as informações produzidas, mas fatores como a desorganização das informações nos portais, a falta de padronização na estrutura virtual e no tipo de linguagem utilizada, bem como a falta de mecanismos de participação e interação popular nos portais são determinantes no tocante aos problemas de acesso e de comunicação com o público em geral. Além disso, o pouco tempo de criação das instituições pesquisadas e do exercício do cargo de seus gestores também deve ser considerado como reflexo para os resultados encontrados. Dessa forma, a presente pesquisa realçou a importância do tema Transparência Pública e alcançou um resultado positivo para uma contribuição científica e social. / Considering the need of communication between public management and society and its citizens, in a way which is more effective and transparent, the aim of this research was to analyze the transparency of public information presented by the managers of the portals of southern Brazil’s Federal Institutes. It is a qualitative and quantitative research, applied as its purpose, and exploratory as its aim. In order to explain the issue from the theoretical frameworks published, it will be used as a procedure the bibliographic research and the further study field research in the six southern Brazil’s Federal Institutes. Therefore, the theoretical framework approaches aspects about public transparency, concepts of information and communication in the public sector, and it presents measurement indexes of public transparency. The data collection with the Institutes sought to measure – in the portals – the level of transparency of the information presented by the managers, applying a search tool which provided the transparency index of eleven categories of the researched items, besides verifying the presence of the required items by Access to Information Law. In the sequence, it sought to verify the Institutes managers’ perception of the aspects which composes the proposed theme, for the purpose of observing how the process of communication between public agencies and the citizen is happening. The main results obtained emphasize, in a general way, a low level of public information propagation, with a lower average of propagation to the information about social, environmental and economic responsibility, and a greater average to the information related to the institution’s general data – from its management structure to its ordinance. It was also observed that no institution which was researched fully comply with the demands of the Access of Information Law. The results about the manager perceptio demonstrate a tendency in publishing the produced information, however, elements such disorganization of information in the portals, lack of standardization of the virtual structure and type of language to use, and lack of procedures of popular participation and interaction in the portals are determiners to bring problems in the access and in the communication with the public. Besides, the short time of institutions’ creation and the short time of the managers assuming their functions must be considered as a reflex of the found results. Therewith, the present study highlighted the importance of Public Transparency theme and it reached a positive result to a scientific and social contribution.

Considerando a necessidade de comunicação entre a administração pública e a sociedade e seus cidadãos, da maneira mais efetiva e transparente possível, o objetivo desta pesquisa foi analisar o conjunto de elementos de transparência das informações públicas apresentadas pelos gestores nos portais dos Institutos Federais da Região Sul do Brasil. Trata-se de uma pesquisa quantitativa e qualitativa, aplicada quanto à sua finalidade, e exploratória quanto ao seu objetivo. No intuito de explicar a problemática a partir dos referenciais teóricos publicados, foi utilizado omo procedimento a pesquisa bibliográfica e o posterior estudo de campo nos seis Institutos Federais da Região Sul do Brasil. Assim, o referencial teórico abordou aspectos sobre a transparência pública e conceitos de informação e comunicação no setor público, apresentando índices de mensuração de transparência pública. O levantamento de dados junto aos Institutos buscou mensurar nos portais o grau de transparência das informações apresentadas pelos gestores, aplicando instrumento de pesquisa que permitiu a obtenção de índice de transparência para 11 categorias de itens pesquisados, além de verificar a presença nos portais dos itens considerados obrigatórios pela Lei de Acesso à Informação. Em um segundo momento, buscou verificar, por meio de questionário, a percepção dos gestores dos Institutos sobre os aspectos que compõem o tema proposto, a fim de observar como acontece esse processo de comunicação entre os órgãos públicos e o cidadão. Os principais resultados obtidos enfatizam, de maneira geral, um baixo índice de divulgação das informações públicas, com menor média de divulgação para informações sobre responsabilidade social, ambiental e econômica, e maior média para as informações relacionadas aos dados gerais da instituição, desde sua estrutura administrativa até sua regulamentação. Também foi observado que nenhuma instituição pesquisada cumpre integralmente com as exigências da Lei de Acesso à Informação. Os resultados sobre a percepção do gestor demonstram uma tendência de divulgar as informações produzidas, mas fatores como a desorganização das informações nos portais, a falta de padronização na estrutura virtual e no tipo de linguagem utilizada, bem como a falta de mecanismos de participação e interação popular nos portais são determinantes no tocante aos problemas de acesso e de comunicação com o público em geral. Além disso, o pouco tempo de criação das instituições pesquisadas e do exercício do cargo de seus gestores também deve ser considerado como reflexo para os resultados encontrados. Dessa forma, a presente pesquisa realçou a importância do tema Transparência Pública e alcançou um resultado positivo para uma contribuição científica e social. / Considering the need of communication between public management and society and its citizens, in a way which is more effective and transparent, the aim of this research was to analyze the transparency of public information presented by the managers of the portals of southern Brazil’s Federal Institutes. It is a qualitative and quantitative research, applied as its purpose, and exploratory as its aim. In order to explain the issue from the theoretical frameworks published, it will be used as a procedure the bibliographic research and the further study field research in the six southern Brazil’s Federal Institutes. Therefore, the theoretical framework approaches aspects about public transparency, concepts of information and communication in the public sector, and it presents measurement indexes of public transparency. The data collection with the Institutes sought to measure – in the portals – the level of transparency of the information presented by the managers, applying a search tool which provided the transparency index of eleven categories of the researched items, besides verifying the presence of the required items by Access to Information Law. In the sequence, it sought to verify the Institutes managers’ perception of the aspects which composes the proposed theme, for the purpose of observing how the process of communication between public agencies and the citizen is happening. The main results obtained emphasize, in a general way, a low level of public information propagation, with a lower average of propagation to the information about social, environmental and economic responsibility, and a greater average to the information related to the institution’s general data – from its management structure to its ordinance. It was also observed that no institution which was researched fully comply with the demands of the Access of Information Law. The results about the manager perceptio demonstrate a tendency in publishing the produced information, however, elements such disorganization of information in the portals, lack of standardization of the virtual structure and type of language to use, and lack of procedures of popular participation and interaction in the portals are determiners to bring problems in the access and in the communication with the public. Besides, the short time of institutions’ creation and the short time of the managers assuming their functions must be considered as a reflex of the found results. Therewith, the present study highlighted the importance of Public Transparency theme and it reached a positive result to a scientific and social contribution.

Bibliography: pages 86-93 / In South Africa, freedom of information (FOI) or the right of access to information (ATI) is entrenched in section 32 of the Constitution. Section 32 guarantees every citizen the right of access to any information held by the state or held by any other person that is to be used for the protection or exercise of any right. The Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) is the law that gives effect to section 32 of the Constitution. Regardless of a remarkable trend towards the adoption of FOI laws globally, international trends have shown this does not automatically translate into fulfilment of people’s right to information, as access to information by citizens remains a challenging factor. This study utilised mixed method research through the explanatory sequential design to assess compliance with FOI legislation by public bodies in South Africa with the view to ensure transparency, accountability and good governance. In this regard, the study first conducted a quantitative study by analysing the reports of the South African Human Rights Commission from the reporting years 2006/07 to 2016/07 to assess compliance with sections 14, 17 and 32 of the PAIA. The compliance trends were identified and thereafter a qualitative study was conducted to answer the question why the situation was the way it was. In this regard, interviews were conducted with a purposively chosen sample from complying and non-complying public bodies. The targeted participants were records managers, deputy information officers or officials responsible for PAIA in each chosen public body. The mixing strategy for the current study was at the data analysis, presentation and reporting level. Key results suggest that over the years, there were problems in the implementation of the FOI legislation in South Africa and its use was limited. Where implementation has taken place, it has been partial and inconsistent. The responsibility for implementation of FOI legislation in most public bodies is assigned to legal departments that do not have knowledge of what records are created, where and how they are kept. With regard to compliance, in terms of the degree of comparison, the situation was better in national departments, worse in provincial departments (with full compliance from the Free State, Limpopo, Western Cape and, to some extent, KwaZulu-Natal) and worst in municipalities. The study recommends the establishment of an information governance unit to implement FOI in public bodies. This unit will also be responsible for other information functions such as records management and information technology. Failure to assign responsibility to a relevant unit would perpetuate the non-compliance with FOI legislation in South Africa. As a result, accountability, transparency and good governance preached by the public sector to advance democracy in South Africa would be a mirage. A model for the implementation of PAIA within a public body is suggested. / Information Science / M. Inf.

This study investigated the use and management of electronic mail (email) in Zimbabwe’s central government. Employing a mixed method research approach, the study used a pluralist ontological paradigm and a pragmatic epistemological paradigm within the convergent mixed methods research design. Quantitative responses from questionnaires were corroborated by qualitative findings from semi-structured interviews, personal observation and document reviews. The study was restricted to Zimbabwe’s central government, focusing on head offices of 22 government ministries situated in Zimbabwe’s capital city of Harare. The population of the study was 670. The Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown imposed in Zimbabwe as from 30 March 2020 negatively affected data collection as some targeted respondents could not be accessed as the researcher had initially planned, leading to an overall response rate of 37.3%. Nonetheless, 12 out of 22 government ministries participated in the study. Quantitative data were analysed using Microsoft Excel 2010® and descriptive statistics while qualitative data were analysed thematically using Atlas.ti®. The study conformed to ethical standards of research as espoused in the University of South Africa’s ethical review guidelines. The study revealed that due to the adoption of electronic government and the inherent relative advantages of email, among other factors, there was increase in use of email as an official record in Zimbabwe’s central government. Nonetheless, management of email was still in its nascent stages and was largely poorly articulated. Poor email classification, filing, appraisal, security, preservation and disposal were largely traceable to deficiencies in legal, policy and procedural frameworks as well as skills and information and communication technology infrastructural challenges. These in turn triggered email retrieval, access, preservation and authenticity challenges. This study was a first local research to address both the use and management of email in a single study and one which proposed a framework for the effective use and management of email where a call was made to match increase in use of email with increase in professional management of the same. The proposed framework may go a long way in influencing proper and professional use and management of email in Zimbabwe’s central government and similar organisations. / Information Science / D. Phil. (Information Science)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the implementation of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system at Western Cape Government (WCG), South Africa. The study evaluated the state of the implementation in order to establish whether the system met information and records management requirements and objectives. A probability sampling was used on a total population of 51 respondents and participants. The data were triangulated using multi-methods, whereby both qualitative and quantitative approaches were adopted in a sequential manner. A structured online survey questionnaire, online interviews, and document analysis were used to collect data, which were descriptively analysed. The study revealed that although the WCG has embarked on digitisation projects, which culminated in the department-wide implementation of ECM, the system was not evaluated regularly and consistently. This resulted in an inability to capture the lessons learnt – as well as a failure to realise the full benefits of implementing the system. The findings also showed that ECM implementation at WCG encountered some challenges – for example, inadequate training provided to staff, lack of adequate technology infrastructure, and poor technical support with regard to systems for managing digital records – that impacted on the system’s efficiency. Some of the recommendations of the study are that WCG should consider conducting regular ECM reviews to determine whether the system performs as required in terms of bringing about expected benefits, such as easy retrieval of digitally stored content. Departments should also ensure that there is an alignment among various digital applications for the purpose of creating a single enterprise platform that promotes collaboration and knowledge sharing. A study of ECM implementation in other provinces would enable a comparison of how the system performs elsewhere, including how it could be used as a viable option for organisations to promote digitisation. / Information Science / M. Inf. (Information Science)