PAGE �

Feature

www.lawcrossing.com

According to the article, ARMA International’s Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles, specifically, ARMA’s “Principle of Transparency” states that “the processes and activities of an organization’s recordkeeping program shall be documented in an understandable manner and be available to all personnel and appropriate interested parties.”

Some legal professionals interpret the principle to mean that information must be “open and available”; however, more accurately, it refers to “the processes and controls” surrounding the organization’s information, that “must be open and available.” In addition, it also can be interpreted to mean that the “policies and procedures regarding information creation, use, and disposition must be well documented and enforced”, per the article.

Common problematic areas for organizations regarding policies and procedures (P/P) involving information include said policies and procedures being out of date, or being nonexistent. As well, if P/P do exist, they are not applicable to both hard copy and electronic data, many exceptions exist in their application, and there are few, if any compliance checks; auditing users for compliance is difficult or impossible.

When there is a breakdown in an organization’s information P/P, efforts regarding governance are disconcerted and inefficient; the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing, as it were. As a result, discovery and production of data becomes more difficult, and integrity breaks down, along with communication.

To achieve viable transparency, there must be collaboration and agreement among IT, legal, compliance, and records management departments in creating, enforcing and monitoring effective, timely policies and procedures. There must also be an ongoing effort to educate users, and to bridge the gap between information governance, and access, two concepts which are often at odds with one another.

Established in 1955, “ARMA International is a not-for-profit professional association and the authority on managing records and information - paper and electronic,” according to arma.org. It’s estimated 11,000 members include records managers, archivists, corporate librarians, legal professionals, IT managers, consultants, and educators, according to additional information at the association’s website.

Information Governance, Transparency and the Whole Damn ThingBy Rebecca E. Neely

According to the law.com article, “Transparency: Compliance Requires Enforced Protocols”, information governance is easier in

theory than in practice, as is oft the case with a great many issues. This is especially true when it comes to “providing responses for

compliance or electronic data discovery,” according to the law.com article, “Transparency, Compliance requires enforced protocols.”

Offering the requested data is not enough. Organizations must demonstrate compliance regarding that information, from cradle to

grave. In order to accomplish this, careful planning, and certain procedures must be in place regarding this often convoluted and

elusive thing called information governance, an area where many organizations fall short.