EMPLOYEES at the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration breathed a sigh of relief yesterday at the Continental Building when they kissed manual record-keeping goodbye.

Home Affairs Minister Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana launched a new system of electronic document and records management (EDRMS).

According to Ithana, since independence the government has been using paper-based records which are time consuming, inefficient and unprofessional.

EDRMS project manager Sarah Negumbo from the prime minister's office said the aim of the project is to ensure a risk-free electronic records and archival system for the public service in line with the National Archives Act of 1992.

"Records are not filed according to the filing system as per archives codes, making it difficult for records to be retrieved. Another aspect that the EDRMS implementation is addressing is the issue of security, because it was also discovered that some of the registries do not have security measurements in place in terms of preventing unauthorised access," Negumbo said.

According to Negumbo the aim of the EDRMS project is to implement the system across all government offices, ministries and agencies.