THE Ministry of Health is continuously upgrading its document-storage systems with the aim of improving the accessibility and security of records required by the Audit Office.
This initiative is part of a larger effort to improve transparency, accountability, and efficiency in the health sector, said the ministry’s Permanent Secretary (PS),
Malcolm Watkins, during a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting last week.
During the hearing, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira, cited multiple instances in which auditors were unable to account for several items, including vouchers for payments amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars because relevant documents could not be located. As a result, she questioned whether the ministry’s asset register was functioning.
Emphasising that “tax-payers money counts,” she stressed that whatever is purchased should be recorded and be easily identifiable.
In response, Watkins detailed the improvements being made: “The asset register tracking is something we had to rebuild and refocus. It was not properly kept.
“There is a small team that has been working with the Auditor General’s Office for a few years now. It is an ongoing process where a number of systems…we are trying to strengthen and this is one of them.”
According to him, the ministry is streamlining processes to make them easier for audit verification. The initiative, he explained, involves transitioning from a largely paper-based system to a cutting-edge electronic document-management system.
“On the digital front, there is a central server system that is managed by the IT manager. And then he has a periodic back-up system that takes it off the server as another layer of defence. We feel confident that that digital aspect is fairly solid for now. In the future maybe we will look at cloud,” Watkins said.
Staff training is crucial to the success of this initiative, he noted.
“On the physical side, I have done a lot of work with my heads of department on the right behaviours. So, we have applied a system of immediate filing and then indexing every file as we go through the process. So, if [there’s] a tender board award today, it should be flagged and then indexed in the file tomorrow. Immediate real-time filing is important and then routine checks.”
The PS added: “We are going into a system of quarterly reviews, self-audits. So, in that way, we check ourselves before the auditors come. On the other front, we have invested in a 40-foot container specifically for accounts and some other departments [and] temperature-controlled containers to store files that takes [sic] us back to the seven- or 10-year requirement.”
Furthermore, Watkins noted that as the ministry expands its offices, it is building the appropriate shelving and buying the right types of filing cabinets and has increased training for staff in the registry and administrative departments.
It is expected that this new document-management system for pertinent records, including financial documents, contracts, procurement records, and administrative files is expected to improve coordination between the Ministry of Health and the Audit Office.
And, according to Watkins, the ministry has already seen success with this initiative.
