Overhaul of Government Document Management System

The government’s document system, which has been managed by amateurs, will be reformed to meet the global standards.

Originally, the documentation process was initiated only after the task was completed. However, with the reform, government documents will be consistently managed throughout the entire “life cycle” of initial framing, management, use, preservation, and scrapping.

Such change is expected to boost transparency in government tasks, offer people easier access to monitor government policies, and allow in-depth research on government policies and history.

Three government agencies, “Committee for Document Management Innovation” (chaired by Ahn Byung-woo, professor of Hanshin University), a subcommittee of Presidential Committee on government innovation and Decentralization, “Task Force Team of Affairs and Record Innovation” (chaired by Jeong Sang-moon, presidential secretary of general affairs) of Cheong Wa Dae, and “Team of Government Document Innovation” (chaired by Park Chan-woo, president of NARS) of the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs (MOGAHA), announced the “Outline of government document system innovation plan” and launched the project.

According to the Committee for Document Management Innovation on March 2, a “roadmap,” which includes detailed schedule and strategies for 22 document innovation tasks, will be announced by March 25, following the release of the outline.

The government plans to develop the new system by the first half of 2005. By 2007, the system will be applied to 711 government institutions, including the legislature, the judiciary, and local administration offices, after pilot implementation on the MOGAHA in the second half of 2005.

According to the plan, the new form of government documents will include every opinion of all participants in the policy making, from drafters, deciding officers, and to final deciding officers.

More information will be shared with the public and standards to decide the confidentiality of documents, which used to be different between ministries, will be unified.

To manage documentation more professionally, the government will hire “documentation experts,” who will be exclusively in charge of government document management, in the first half of this year and dispatch them to each ministry.

In line with such efforts, the “Committee for Document Management Innovation” decided to revise the document classification criterion, which has been implemented from this year, to meet international standards. Moreover, the committee will develop a new document form that allows consistent record management from task implementation stage so that core government institutions can use it.

Besides, in joint efforts with the National Archives and Records Service (NARS), the new “e-document system” for central administrative institutions, the “database system” for temporary custody of documents and the “special document management system” for permanent preservation and use of document will be linked to boost consistency in government documents.

Ahn, president of the “Committee for Document Management Innovation,” said, “Civil servants’ traditional reluctance to record administrative affairs has been a stumbling block to research on government policies and history as well as proper monitoring of the government. The reform in the document system will open the doors for in-depth studies and serve as a driving force to change documentation practices of government, businesses, and individuals.”

Jong-Dae Ha orionha@donga.com