Board Meeting of the Department for Archives and Records Management of the Republic of Belarus
On 29 December 2009, the Department for Archives and Records Management of the Republic of Belarus held a board meeting to address the following issues:
implementation of the Strategy for Automation of Archives in 2005-2010;
handling citizens’ enquiries in the State Archival Network of the Republic of Belarus in the second half of 2009;
execution of legislation in combating the corruption in the system of the State Archival Network of the Republic of Belarus in 2009;
conducting an inspection of financial and economic activities in subordinate institutions; measures to strengthen control over and increase savings in budgetary funds and physical resources;
Action plan of the Department for 2010.
On the first issue, it was noted that extensive work had been carried out in further automation of Belarusian archives. The Strategy for Automation of Archives in 2005-2010 provided for the automation of main activities in the state archives; automation of the Department’s activities; organization of interaction between archival state institutions based on electronic mail and the Web.
The automation of main activities in the state archives purposes to create in each archive an automated information system. In 2009 a network version was created for the Unified Archive Information System. At the same time, archives automation meets certain problems. According to the survey of computers in the archives, 14.2% of them are subject to replacement since they do not support the current software; 23% need upgrade (if possible) or replacement. Certain archives have no backup system. Of acute importance is the administration of local area network. The Archive Information System needs permanent hardware and software maintenance.
On the second issue, it was noted that handling citizens’ enquiries in the system of the State Archival Network of Belarus was conducted in strict accordance with regulations defined by Belarusian legislation. The Belarusian archives work effectively to respond to citizens’ enquiries based on an application alone, with no need for other documents to submit. The Department and the regional archive authorities exercise control over the archives in handling citizens’ enquiries. Thus, in the second half of 2009 the Department inspected the procedures of handling enquiries from private individuals and juridical persons at the Belarusian State Archives of Films, Photographs and Sound Recordings, the Belarusian State Archives of Scientific and Technical Documentation, the Belarusian Research Institute of Records Management and Archival Studies, the Belarusian State Archives-Museum of Literature and Art, and the Central Laboratory for Microphotocopying and Restoration of Records. The mentioned archives properly observe the current legislation in handling citizens’ enquiries. On the other hand, this work encounters certain difficulties caused by inadequate preservation of the personnel records of liquidated organizations.
The issue of combating the corruption in the system of the State Archival Network of Belarus was noted to be under permanent control by the Department for Archives and Records Management. The inspecting of financial and economic activities in the subordinate archival institutions focuses primarily on the issues of effective expenditure of funds, the procedures of preservation, use and disposal of public property.