Fighting acquired record-keeping deficiency syndrome: The role of the individual

By Sammy Dzandu

Going through my records last week, I saw one of my primary school exercise books with the title: “English Composition”. It was indeed a nostalgic moment as I read essays that I wrote some years ago. The topics included: “The game I like best”, “My best friend” and “The day I will never forget” Of course, I noticed some funny errors in the essays. Apart from my sentences being too long, some of my expressions also lacked clarity. I must, however, acknowledge my former class teacher for correcting every mistake. In fact, he underlined some words, circled some expressions and wrote above them: “sp”, “t” and “exp” indicating wrong spellings, wrong tenses and wrong expressions respectively. Well, considering my level of knowledge at that time, I would say the essays were generally not bad.

Given a similar opportunity to write on any of those topics today, I would choose “The day I will never forget”.

Many people, I believe, are excited when they receive invitations to attend interviews for employment. Of course they have every cause to be happy. After all, only God knows the number of responses to application letters that they might have received which read: “In response to your application for so and so position, we regret to inform you that there are no vacancies. We hope to contact you as soon as there is vacancy. We thank you for the interest shown in our organization”.

I could therefore not hide my joy when I was fortunate to be invited to attend an interview for employment a few years ago. I did all the necessary preparations that were expected of any prospective interviewee. In fact, as part of my “rehearsals”, my elder brother and one of my close friends organized a “mock interview” for me the day before the d-day.

Since the interview was scheduled for a town which was quite far away from my place of residence, I left my home-town very early to enable me report for the interview on time.

On my arrival at the lorry station, I was issued with a ticket, whose number I did not even bother to look at. I only went straight and sat down in the car which I was directed to. Immediately I sat down, I squeezed the ticket and tore it into pieces. In fact, I did not know what exactly came over me that day. I think I was just careless and stupid- Period! No wonder I paid dearly for such irresponsible action. Not long after the last seat was occupied, a gentleman also joined the car. Since the car was full we were wondering where he was going to sit. After the man had complained to the driver that there was no seat for him, the driver asked that whoever knew he/she did not pay his/her lorry fare should get down from the car. Some of the passengers then started murmuring and said the culprit should own up and stopped wasting their time. Since there was no response from the passengers, the driver ordered that we should all display our tickets. At that juncture, my blood pressure started to rise. In fact, in exception of me, everybody including the gentleman who boarded the car late had a ticket. Mine was nowhere to be found. (I have destroyed it) What a shame! No amount of my explanation that I had indeed paid could save me. In the end, I was made to get down from the car amidst all kinds of insults and insinuations by the passengers. But who was to be blamed? I, of course!

Apparently, the one who issued the tickets made a mistake by repeating my ticket number, thus, giving the same number to another passenger. This came to light when the total money collected by the driver increased by the fare of one passenger. Although my money was refunded to me, I paid a price for my carelessness by waiting several hours before bordering another car.

After covering about two kilometres of the journey, the car developed a mechanical fault, compelling us to wait for some hours for it to be repaired. All attempts to get the interview panelists informed about my predicaments proved futile. I finally got to the place, however, at a time when the interview had ended. The sad news is that I missed the interview.

The incident I just narrated is a classical example of the attitude of some of us - Not taking record-keeping seriously. There have been several calls on corporate institutions to keep proper records. However, until we cultivate that culture as individuals, the calls may not yield much result. This is because the institutions or the organization are made up of individuals.

It is not an exaggeration to say that some of us could not easily locate our important documents including birth, educational, marriage and land certificates.

A friend was milked by his own cousin when he was building his house. In fact, he entrusted the entire project to his cousin without any proper documentation- No records on the types and quantities of materials purchased, no documentation on the cost of hired labour, etc. All he was doing was just dishing out any money his cousin requested for. The man therefore took advantage of my friend’s inability to keep records and duped him. By the time my friend was advised to open his eyes, his cousin had already built one house for himself. A colleague at my work place would say “Na who cause am now?”

There are instances when some businessmen, especially petty traders are looted by their employees simply because they do not keep records, including stock-taking.

How many of us are able to keep all the receipts of the payments we made on our utilities?

As for pay slips, the least said about them, the better. I doubt if some of us could even locate the most recent one. No wonder some unscrupulous people use our pay slips to buy items on hire-purchase without our knowledge, resulting in huge sums of monies being deducted from our salaries.

I wonder how many parents keep individual files for their children for the proper documentation of matters relating to them (the children).

Our lackadaisical attitude towards the keeping of our own records has in no doubt reflected in the way we manage records at our work places. For instance, letters, memos and dockets in offices could not be traced. Very important records which should be properly stored are dumped haphazardly under staircases and on the floor. To put it bluntly, we do not have any regard for records management.

As individuals, we need to make the conscious effort to keep our records properly. Companies, organizations and institutions should employ archivists to manage their records professionally. Also, staff should be given the necessary training in records management to be more effective and efficient.

wofasammy4@yahoo.com

The writer is an archivist