THE Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA), and the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Authority will now transition into their digitisation phase of record keeping following the successful implementation of the Government of Jamaica’s Records and Information Management (RIM) programme across the institutions.

“They can now be prepared to move to digitisation. Because what is happening now is the manual implementation of RIM. We must have our manual records in order to move to digitisation. Because in the manual process you will now streamline your records in terms of what you have, the volume of what you have, the different categories, what is most important, then you can move on to digitisation,” said senior archivist at the Government records centre Alecia Litchmore.

She was speaking with the Jamaica Observer during the RIM Month 2026 ceremony held at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in New Kingston on Monday where both entities were awarded for the successful implementation of the programme.

“So phase one is the manual RIM where the organisations get there paper records ready. So all their paper records would have been sorted and up to date. So they can use an inventory. One of the things in the programme is the implementation of the inventory,” she added.

RIM, a national initiative designed to standardise the management of official records across the government of Jamaica, rests within the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information and is spearheaded by the information division.

It is supported by the Jamaica Archives and Records Department (JARD), that guides the programme’s implementation across ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).

“The RIM programme came out of the Cabinet’s decision in 2018 where the RIM policy was approved by the Cabinet. The different MDAs would contact JARD each year to be on the programme. And we do an initial assessment of those MDAs to see where they are in terms of, firstly, if they have real personal details to do the implementation. Once those requirements are met, they are then on-boarded. After they have on-boarded, they would have a few weeks of workshops to get through the process leading up to off-boarding,” said Litchmore.

She explained that though the on-boarding process usually takes around eight months for completion, the technicality faced by different MDAs can sometimes extend this period.

“For the boarding process, sometimes it varies because, again, the technicality of the different MDAs. Although JARD have the responsibility for the implementation, if the ministries are not available to do the different steps to bring them to the off-boarding, then they can’t be allowed to be off-boarded in eight months. So you’ll find that some MDAs go far beyond the time,” she said.

Fern Townsend, a member of the ICT, told the Observer that the implementation of RIM has made the process of locating records seamless.

“It makes our records more easily accessible to all. If you want a record from the registry, it shouldn’t take you longer than 30 minutes. Now, there are some records you can get in five or less, it depends. But you have to go through the stages, because we do secure our records, but gone are the days when it would take you hours or days to retrieve a particular record. We no longer have that situation. We can easily identify a record. Somebody comes and they ask you for something, and once you know the subject matter, it’s a pull,” she said, adding that the institution has been on-boarded for approximately four years.

Meanwhile, Acting Government Archivist at JARD, Ketanya Laing, noted that the implementation of the programme focuses on five key result areas with full implementation across MDAs ongoing incrementally.

“[These are] legislative and regulatory framework development, organisational structures and human resources enhancement, JARD institutional framework reform, standardised RIM systems implementation, and stakeholder capacitation. Operationalisation follows a phased approach, with pilot testing initially conducted in select departments like the Cabinet, Office of the Prime Minister, JARD, and the Auditor General’s Department,” she said adding that the review of the RIM policy is scheduled every five years.

— BILLEANE WILLIAMS

Gayan Facey, campus records manager at The University of the West Indies, giving the keynote address at the RIM Month 2026 ceremony held at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston on Monday. (Photo: Garfield Robinson)