Ombudsman probes government sites records management
The Ombudsman announced on Tuesday that her office will investigate the management of records on government websites and social media accounts.  The government watchdog said it will examine how the records are being managed, and whether the Government Records Service (GRS) has given sufficient and effective guidelines and support to bureaux and departments. In a statement, Ombudsman Winnie Chiu said around 70 percent of government units have created social media accounts, including on Weibo, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. She said proper preservation of records and management are extremely important, and that recommendations for improvement would be made where necessary.  "Records are valuable resources enabling the government to learn from experience and make evidence-based decisions… proper records preservation and management are indispensable to good governance," she said.  "As the use of information technology has become part of daily life, it is a dominant trend for the government to make use of websites and social media in performing public functions. It falls upon the government to properly manage the voluminous electronic records that come with such usage in this digital era." Chiu noted that a preliminary inquiry by her office showed that the GRS launched two website archiving pilot projects in 2018 and 2022, as well as a preliminary study of social media archiving in 2021 – but the relevant works are still in their initial stage.