Acting Secretary-General Heru Setiawan opening the technical assistance program on archival disposal assessment in the Registrar’s Office and the Secretariat-General of the Constitutional Court, Wednesday (11/30/2022). Photo by MKRI/Agung.

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Wednesday, November 30, 2022 | 16:49 WIB

(MKRI) — For judicial institutions such as the Constitutional Court (MK), archives serve as a scientific database and a center for information related to legal events, especially the handling of constitutional cases, which reflects the dynamic political journey of the nation. The state archives in the Constitutional Court might have important historic value for national accountability to present and future generations.

“Therefore, in order to ensure the safety and security of archives, the Constitutional Court is committed to managing archives effectively and efficiently in accordance with statutory laws and regulations,” said acting Secretary-General Heru Setiawan in his speech during a technical assistance program on archival disposal assessment in the Registrar’s Office and the Secretariat-General of the Constitutional Court on Wednesday, November 30, 2022 in Bekasi, West Java.

There is one principle in archive management, Heru said, archives are kept as long as they are used. Based on Article 66 of the Government Regulation (PP) No. 28 of 2012 on the Implementation of Law No, 43 of 2009 on Archives, several procedures and stages must be followed for archival disposal. For this reason, he added, evaluation is carried out to select which archives will be destroyed. This procedure must be passed to avoid administrative and criminal punishment, following Law No. 43 of 2009 on Archives.

“Therefore, we must be careful not to destroy archives carelessly if we do not want to be subject to administrative/criminal punishment. If the archives stored in a work unit have piled up and are rarely used, please arrange the archives and move them to the Archives Unit. Let the Archives Unit plan and carry out the disposal of the archives. In accordance with the Archive Law, the Archives Unit is responsible for destroying archives,” Heru explained. 

Insignificant Archives

Meanwhile, the head of the General Affairs Bureau Elisabeth said in her report that, following the increase of the duties and functions of the Constitutional Court, the volume of archives also increased. This can cause problems, especially with regard to records management infrastructure, costs, and various other problems that could become an economic burden on the organization. Therefore, in 2022, the Archive Unit will destroy its insignificant archives.

The objective of the technical assistance program, Elisabeth said, is reaching the same understanding when of the assessment of archives to be destroyed to optimally maintain the Court’s archives, making efficient use of the capacity and equipment related to archive storage, and saving archives that are useful for national interests, especially to preserve historic evidence.

“The number of archives to be assessed reaches 10,952 files from the Finance and Planning Bureau; the Public Relations and Protocol Bureau; the Human Resources and Organization Bureau; the General Affairs Bureau; and the Center for Research, Case Review, and Library Management, and the Inspectorate. For this program, speakers from the National Archives of the Republic of Indonesia (ANRI) will also provide assistance and insight of the correct policies and procedures in archival assessment,” Elisabeth explained. 

Archival Disposal for Effectiveness and Efficiency

Next, in his presentation on the “Archival Disposal Policy,” ANRI’s senior archivist Taufik said that archives that have been piling up for 19 years since the Constitutional Court was established must flow to prevent any scatter. This is because every 10 years archives must be destroyed for the effectiveness and efficiency of archives, including digitization. “Active archives in work units of an institution should only be ten to twenty percent. The rest must be done efficiently,” he explained. 

Meanwhile, ANRI’s Archive Acquisition Group coordinator Tato Pujiarto delivered a presentation on “Archival Assessment and Disposal Techniques,” where he revealed that the analysis and the legal basis archival assessment is very important. There are also special considerations in determining which archives to save.

The technical assistance program on archival disposal assessment will take place for three days on Wednesday to Friday, November 30 to December 2, 2022. A total of forty-five participants, officials or staff of all work units of the Registrar’s Office and the Secretariat-General of the Constitutional Court, attended the program.

Writer        : Sri Pujianti
Editor        : Nur R.
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Translation uploaded on 12/8/2022 08:31 WIB

Disclaimer: The original version of the news is in Indonesian. In case of any differences between the English and the Indonesian versions, the Indonesian version will prevail.

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