Strategies for Managing E-Records for Good Governance: Reflection on E-Government in the Kingdom of Eswatini

Problem Statement

The overarching problem that instigated this study is that while there is abundant evidence of the Eswatini government’s undoubted ICT platforms that provide accurate and faster communication through the use of e-applications to access government services, the status of e-record readiness of this implementation has not been fully ascertained. Several authorities on records management such as IRMT (2004; 2009) underscore the fact that though e-government services produce e-records that document government transactions and online activities, their extent of the application records management functionalities remain in contention.

The Eswatini ICT legislative and policy framework of 2007 allows for the establishment of the e-government portal that should provide ubiquitous access and sharing of information through internet among government departments; yet there have been several instances where records captured and stored in the e-records system have been lost or could not be accessed by the user community. This implies that the drive in the implementation of the national e-government strategy is fraught, among other issues, with e-records management challenges of admissibility, authenticity and reliabity which are a cornerstone for evidence in the administration of the state and general governance of the country (Tsabedze, 2011).