Commonwealth sets 2020 target for paperless government
A new set of objectives for information management at Australian government agencies proposes that paper will be completely removed from business workflows by the year 2020.
Launched by Secretary of the Department of Finance Jane Halton, it also proposes this can be achieved without any additional funding from government.
“All agencies will make and record business decisions digitally, using digital authorisations and workflows,” states the Digital Continuity 2020 Policy published on the web site of the National Archives of Australia (NAA).
“All Digital Continuity 2020 targets are expected to be achieved as part of normal business reviews and ongoing technology maintenance and investment cycles.”
“As the agency responsible for government information and records management, the National Archives will lead the implementation of the Digital Continuity 2020 Policy,” said Halton.
The 2020 policy establishes a new set of reporting requirements to follow the NAAs Digital Transition Strategy which states that all records created digitally after 2015 will be accepted for transfer to the National Archives in digital formats only
‘Each year the organisation reports to government on the status of digital information management in agencies and recommends further enhancements,’ said National Archives Director-General David Fricker.
‘The standards within our new policy will become whole-of-government requirements and we’re providing agencies with this opportunity to enhance their skills in digital continuity leading up to 2020.”
The first deadline set down in the 2020 Policy is June 30, 2016, by which time all Commonwealth agencies must have established information governance committees. The policy also proposes assessment of systems against the standard ISO 16175 and implementation of minimum metadata standards.
The International standard ISO 16175 established in 2006 is a set of functional requirements which explain how organisations can design their business and EDRMS systems to achieve record-keeping compliance