Are our records safe?
Posted on October 6, 2009, 12:23 PM under Government
In the aftermath of typhoon Ondoy, several records in the municipality got wet.
For more than a week now, the front of the municipal hall is filled with documents being dried up. These include birth, marriage and death certificates, records of past employees, and documents of offices that are on the first floor. With waters reaching chest-deep level and since the human resources, accounting, local civil registrar and agriculture offices are lower than the first floor, it could not be helped but for the important documents to get wet.
LCR officer Noraida Babiera has long anticipated this, that’s why she has requested the facilities department to construct a hanging cabinet. This never happened. “Sukat sila ng sukat, nakatatlo, nakaapat na sukat na ata,” she said. Good thing that records in her office has duplicates submitted to the National Statistics Office, she said.
The municipality has to realize the importance of redundancy and retention of records. Maybe it’s time for the municipality to fully automate and computerize, not just the tax collection system, but more so the people’s records. Aside from having a server located within the municipal hall, there should be a backup in a remote location. Copies could also be placed in DVDs that are sealed and kept in a vault. You will never know when the next disaster will come, so we better be prepared.
October 8th, 2009 at 5:48 am
maybe its about time for a digitalization of these documents before a bigger catastrophy happen.
i suggest every individual must also secure their own certified copies of these important document.
October 8th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
COMPUTERIZATION IS A MUST!!
November 30th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
OF COURSE OUR RECORDS ARE NOT SAFE. Our municipality has NO DISASTER RECOVERY AND PREVENTION PLAN. And I do not see the current munisipyo to be professional enough for a paperless environment.