Jamaica: Government launches new RIM policy

To ensure that all activities and decisions of the Government of Jamaica are fully and accurately documented, managed and monitored the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, in collaboration with the Office of the Cabinet, has launched the Records and Information Management (RIM) Policy Implementation and Sensitisation Programme,

The policy will govern records and information management across all ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of the Government.

"Implementation of the RIM policy will facilitate accessible, efficient and effective service delivery to the citizenry, data sharing across MDAs, ease of doing business, research and attraction of investments, increased transparency and accountability through the creation, processing, maintenance, use and disposition of records in conformity with local policies, standards and international good practice; preservation of national and cultural identity; leveraging cultural assets, informing the citizenry, and the overall attainment of national development goals," an official said.

While launching the policy at the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston, Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator Ruel Reid, said the RIM policy is transformational and will help with the storage of important records.

“Our reality today, in the digital age, is that every small unit has its own de facto registry, and each computer is host to volumes of official records, be it e-mails or documents, which are saved and stored, often in an unstructured way,” the minister said.

“While this experience is not at all unique to Jamaica, we accept that without a robust RIM system which provides ready access to relevant and historical documents and which evidences our work, we cannot truly offer to the people of Jamaica good governance, sound policy development and decision-making, efficient and effective services or accountability and transparency,” he said. The minister called on the stakeholders present at the launch, who represented various government MDAs, to ensure that during the implementation there is adherence to managing their digital records in conformity with the prescriptions of the policy, especially with respect to e-mails, which are official records.

Senator Reid also thanked members of the Cabinet Office for their effort, which is contributing to the success of the Public Sector Transformation and Modernisation (PSTM) Programme.