RECORDS MANAGEMENT AND TRANSACTIONS SYSTEM PROJECT

VALUE PROPOSITION

The system is aimed at implementing the globalisation agenda by eliminating some impediments against its realisation. Globalisation in the context of RMTS, means relaxing of constraints in movement of both people and goods/services to achieve effective and efficient utilisation of human and natural resources. It is trite that although the ideals of globalisation agenda are desirable, it has some latent social ills that need some attention, for example, international terrorism, cross-border crimes, information peddling, illegal immigration, smuggling, etc. It is therefore logical for measures to be taken to optimise the utilisation of the transactions trail in both public and private sectors.

To achieve the globalisation agenda one needs to address the domestic issues as precursor towards the bigger external objectives. It is in this regard that, the essence of RMTS is to capture, manage and process records & transactions of entities of all sizes ranging from free standing Personal Computer to a network of interconnected computers. It also ensures that information exchanged with clients, be it within entities, between entities locally and/or internationally is reliable, authenticated and useful.

The platform of the system is, inter alia, User interface, client software interface, global centralised database, sub-systems, artificial intelligence, external records interface and database management system. The chief purposes of the RMTS is authentication of information and the migration from hardcopy based office systems towards paperless office environment. Briefly, the system will accelerate the harvesting of the rewards in recognition of digital signature in the modern jurisdictions.

Some of the prominent features of RMTS is that it is a system designed to establish or enhance synergies of the existing regimes of information system technologies including information databases and further, to provide automated performance management and analysis capacities of key performance areas of the entities. In other words, besides its planning capacity, it monitors, evaluates and generates reports on current and historical transactions. At this level it does not have an equal in the market.

While promoting information sharing it provides safeguards by restricting information sharing within the parameters of the agreements and/or the legislative framework. This is in taking serious the realities of sovereignty sensitivities between governments at the bilateral level and at the multilateral level taking into account security classification levels of records & transactions. As an example, it can be used by countries within a regional bloc or that are signatory to treaties who could readily share records & transactions in line with their common interest and this applies in the same way as the banks sharing creditworthiness checks of their clients to serve their common interests.

The technical capacity of the system will be divulged on expression of interest and subsequently signing a non-disclosure agreement.

The feasibility of RMTS is promoted by the fact that the jurisdictions of all civilised countries recognise the validity of the digital signature . The evidentiary value of the digitally endorsed documents is now accorded equal weight as it was given to the manually endorsed original documents. RMTS serves as the implementation tool and a bridge to total migration into the ideal paperless office environment. The envisaged total migration will be realised when the best evidence rule is overtly applied in favour of the documents within the RMTS system thereby reducing evidentiary value of any form of document outside of the RMTS. For the objective to be achieved the RMTS must be validated by the authorities.

The RMTS system has a wider market to exploit since the reality of the digital signature is not yet embedded and realised in the practical sphere of conducting transactions and records management. The governments' records and transactions are still kept and executed in the hard copy format and are, by far, still managed manually despite the fact that the period we are living in, is defined as a digital era. Keeping hardcopy records needs more office space and human resource dedicated to information processing and controls. Hardcopy and manual records management renders most information dormant and unused - the situation that resulted in the disastrous situations that could have been avoided in the security environment. This is because hardcopy file management is onerous and tedious for businesses and government, alike. Still, information is predominantly exchanged by duplication of documents which does not address authenticity issues and is often a waste of paper, providing window for fraud and slows service delivery.

It is encouraging to note that the private sector is setting a trend, albeit solely for commercial interests, but the overall objective will not be achieved since there is symbiotic interdependency between the government business and the private sector. The public sector must embark on this migration as a matter of urgency. Let us explore the problems that are encountered when the private sector unilaterally goes digital without the public sector:

Firstly, the government is audited by the auditor general who applies government policies in conducting the audits. This is also compounded by the fact that, the public sector outsources some of its functions to the private sector and also that the private sector uses infrastructure provided by the public sector. The auditor general still affords more weight on hardcopy evidence to prove government transactions.
Secondly, the receiver of revenue, tax authorities, also applies the government policies in conducting its business. The receiver collects revenue from the private sector and individuals. Thus, thus the private sector has a duty to account for its annual transactions and the revenue generated.
Thirdly, the whole disputes resolution mechanism still applies the doctrine of the best evidence rule which is biased in favour of hard copy original documents.
Fourthly, the government is still issuing hardcopies forms of identification which the financial institutions can only rely on as a form of identification.
Finally, a practice of relying on official stamps of departments to prove authenticity of the documents is prevalent even when there is no value on it at it provides room for fraud.

Institutionalisation of sharing of data, where it serves common interest, in secure environment is increasingly becoming more imperative and it is not a matter of choice. The system will serve as a catalyst towards standardisation and digitization of completed transactions and records. Any digitization of records and transactions conducted in any institution has a place in the system as long as it entails records and completed transactions to the exclusion of drafts documents and incomplete transactions. This system can be used in, inter alia, consular transactions, criminal justice system especially in their interface with the private legal practitioners, trade in goods and services, government departments' records and recording sales and purchases.

Adoption of this system by the government and the private entities will change the way the business is done, for the better, through the integration of records and transactions within a network. After all, corruption thrives on poor management of records and systems. further, on proper analysis, it will be observed that relations are often broken by suspicions and the RMTS take care of that. RMTS system is aimed at addressing the very same issue directly and finally.

INDUSTRY RESEARCH

This system is revolutionary in its implementation of the programs set down by the globalisation agenda, integration of information, sharing of information, security and legal imperatives. It should however be conceded that the private sector has made some progress more than the government by having internal mechanisms that enable them to simultaneously utilise and maintain their records to their benefit - though this is not at the scale and level of RMTS.

The capability of the system has no equivalent in the market and it is innovative. The important aspect of the system is that it embraces the legal trends outlined above and the environmental trend towards paperless offices and greener utilisation of resources which includes the human resource. Unlike the current systems in the market that are equipped with security features after undergoing designing process, this system is founded on security and is built on the security imperatives and the understanding of globalisation agenda and its dynamics. Further, the system was submitted, for the assessment, at the Lambert & Lambert in its early development phase and it was since improved which makes it ready for development phase.