Recordkeeping during MoG and administrative change
Most public authorities will be affected by Machinery of Government (MoG) changes at some point. MoG changes can occur at anytime, but generally happen after a State general election.
The safekeeping of public records is a key consideration for your authority in a MoG change. Authorities are responsible for making sure all public records are cared for before, during and after a MoG change.
The Chief Executive is ultimately responsible for the records of a public authority.
All public authorities involved in the MoG change need to reach an agreement about the responsibility of the public records involved, and formally document this. If the records need to be accessed by more than one public authority, you'll need to include in your agreement the arrangements around how, when, and where records will be accessed or provided.
What is a MoG change?
A MoG change is an administrative, organisational or functional change that affects a public authority.
Most MoG changes happen following a State general election, a restructure, legislative change or the decision to privatise or outsource a function.
It can involve establishing, merging or abolishing public authorities, and/or transferring functions and responsibilities from one authority to another, or ceasing functions and responsibilities.
Regardless of the type of MoG change, there are some things you need to do, and these are outlined below.
Is there any way to prepare for a MoG change?
If you suspect that your public authority may be impacted by a MoG change soon, there's a few things you can do before it is enacted:
- Identify and locate any permanent value paper based public records that have been issued to your authority by QSA through the file issue process and return them to the QSA collection. Check with QSAs File Issue team on this process including about records in active use
- Use an approved retention and disposal schedule to dispose of public records that have reached their minimum retention period – it's usually a lot quicker and easier to do this before the MoG change is enacted than after the transition is completed
- Ensure you have the appropriate delegations in place to approve disposal, as once MoG changes have been enacted new delegations will need to be approved before disposal activities can commence
- If any permanent value public records are found, check with QSAs Transfer team about whether they can be transferred into the QSA collection
- Update your information asset register (or similar) to make sure all public records are accounted for–this is usually the most time consuming part of any MoG change project (see Step 2) so do as much of this as you can before the MoG change is enacted.
The first indication of a MoG change will usually be through legislation, an Administrative Arrangements Order (AAO) and Departmental Arrangements Notices (DANs).
These will tell you what kind of change is happening, what functions are involved and consequently, who the sending and receiving public authorities are.
There are three actions you'll need to take in this first step:
- Find out what kind of MoG change it is – it will look very different for each authority but there are a few common scenarios that we cover. If you're unsure contact your manager.
- Find out which functions are involved – legislation, AAOs or DANs will tell you this. Public records move with the function.
- Find out who will be responsible for these functions after the MoG change:
- If this is covered in legislation, AAOs or DANs, then responsibility for the public records will automatically be transferred with the function.
- If this is not covered in legislation, AAOs or DANs, you might need to do some investigative work to find out who will be receiving the public records (check out the Stage 1 workflow (PDF, 326.5 KB) for a suggested process).
- If an authority ceases to exist, QSA may need to develop a regulation to assign responsibility for the public records to a receiving authority.
Once you've identified the functions that are impacted by a MoG change, you need to find all public records within those functions.
This means:
- Business systems and applications used
- Dedicated recordkeeping system (if you have one)
- Physical records stored onsite or at offsite storage
- Any permanent value records held at QSA.
Depending on the size of your authority and the functions involved, this can be a big task so allow enough time to be accurate (check out the Stage 2 workflow (PDF, 304 KB) for a suggested process).
It might help to focus on core public records (the things that help an authority do its core business) first – these may be more obvious and easier to find than administrative records.
Note: If the MoG change has been enacted, do not destroy any records until the transition has been completed and new delegations have been approved.
Once you've done this, details of the remaining public records need to be documented in an item list (we mention more about this in Step 4).
You may also need to identify any public records that can't be transferred, for example, for technology reasons or you're unable to split or separate public records of a particular function from others. You will need to have further discussions to come to an agreement to resolve these issues.
If you can, try to be involved in discussions about the transfer of systems, applications and other IT considerations, this will make the transfer of public records a lot easier.
All public authorities involved in the MoG change need to reach an agreement about the responsibility of the public records involved, and formally document this. It will need be signed by the Chief Executive of each authority or their delegates.
The agreement must cover:
- How the public records have been identified for transfer
- How the public records will be transferred and when
- How the public records will be managed and accessed over time, including:
- Storage costs for physical records stored offsite
- Ongoing costs of business systems, applications and other digital storage (e.g. licences, ongoing technical support)
- Potential challenges (e.g. legacy systems, software no longer supported or soon to be no longer supported, or storage capacity issues)
- Custody arrangements (if applicable).
If the records need to be accessed by more than one authority, the MoG change agreement must specify how, when, and where public records will be accessed or provided.
This should be based on the requirements of your authority and how many records are involved. You could:
- Provide copies to the receiving authority of any records they need – these copies will become the master copy records for the receiving authority
- Lend records to the receiving authority and document this arrangement
- Manage it through access requests when records are needed infrequently.
Also consider access for any records stored offsite by a storage provider.
The Stage 3 workflow (PDF, 315 KB) and these example clauses (PDF, 235 KB) might help when thinking about these considerations. Use the agreement checklist (PDF, 248 KB) as a basis for your agreement and make sure the legal teams of all authorities involved review it.
The final step is to transfer the public records.
This includes transferring physical public records and migrating digital ones.
The most important part of this stage is making sure the records remain usable and accessible while they're being transferred and when they're in their new home.
You are required to make a record of the event history so you can clearly see when the public records were transferred and where they came from.
Remember to update any dedicated recordkeeping systems, information asset registers or other tools you use to identify and manage your authority's public records. The Stage 4 workflow (PDF, 267 KB) outlines the steps in this process.
The sending authority must provide a transfer batch list to the receiving authority, detailing:
- The records being transferred
- Records stored onsite or at offsite storage
- Any permanent value records held at QSA.
All authorities need to be aware of the records in offsite storage, including the cost implications for the receiving authority, and ensure the offsite storage provider is advised about the new authority responsible for the records.
The transfer batch list (see our Transfer batch list template) should include:
- File title or description of the records–this can be each series or records of a particular activity
- Format (e.g. paper or digital, images, maps, plans)
- Volume (e.g. how many or how much space)
- Date range for that series
- Where they are stored (e.g. offsite with a storage provider or at your authority)
- Sentencing information (e.g. disposal authorisation number, disposal action, retention period).
Your authority's CEO or authorised delegate will need to endorse the transfer of records. The sample transfer batch list, sample transfer memo (DOC, 132 KB) and the sample transfer letter (DOC, 142 KB) might help with this.
Note: If you can't transfer public records after the MoG change is enacted, the receiving agency can outsource the safekeeping of the records back to the sending agency until the records can be transferred. This can be covered in your MoG change agreement.
What if I'm a receiving agency?
As public records move with the function, as soon as the MoG change is enacted, your authority is responsible for the public records transferred.
To support a timely transition, your authority must:
- Contact the sending authority to find out the types of public records are being transferred, including whether any permanent value records are being held at QSA and what kind of business systems and applications are used
- Work with your internal IT areas to ensure that the knowledge and resources required to accept the transferred records is available
- If your authority cannot accept the records (e.g technological issues, storage etc), work with the sending authority to organise a suitable timeframe for transfer and if necessary, arrange to outsource the safekeeping of the records back to the sending authority until you're able to accept them
- Understand which approved retention and disposal schedules cover the records
- Review or update your records governance framework, tools, policies, or procedures.
Responsibility for public records
For the purposes of a MoG change, remember:
- Responsibility follows the function – so when functions of a public authority are transferred or merged during a MoG change, public records will automatically follow.
- If your authority is legally responsible for records, you remain responsible for those records regardless of whether they are in in another authority or storage provider's custody.
- Have an agreement in place with the other authority about the storage and management of the records to ensure the safekeeping, preservation and timely access.
What about permanent public records held at QSA?
QSA are the custodians of the public records we hold.
If your authority has permanent records at QSA but the function of those records transfers to another authority, QSA will transfer responsibility to the new authority.
Resources and tools
Resources and tools for records management have been developed to help you implement best practice records management in your authority.