Bandung (22/5) - The Directorate of Railway Infrastructure has begun to take serious steps toward organizing and managing work unit archives. It started with a visit to the Archive Center of the Ministry of Transportation in Soreang, West Java, on 20 May 2024 to witness first-hand the process of storing and maintaining archives within the Ministry of Transportation. The visit was sufficient to provide an overview of archiving procedures and issues to be considered in archive management. 

In addition, the Directorate of Railway Infrastructure organized a Technical Guidance on Archives Management and BMN Governance to provide an understanding of archive creation and maintenance. The Directorate of Railway Infrastructure cooperates with ANRI (National Archives of the Republic of Indonesia), the General Bureau of the Ministry of Transportation and the Secretariat of the Directorate General of Railways as resource persons. 

Pratomo Guno Saputro, Head of the Sub-Directorate of Track and Building Feasibility, representing the Director of Railway Infrastructure, said that the visit and technical guidance were carried out as a form of work unit awareness of the importance of archive and BMN management.

"Good archive management is important not only for administrative efficiency and effectiveness, but also to ensure transparency and accountability in our working environment," he stated at the start of the technical guidance session on archive management and BMN management within the Directorate of Railway Infrastructure.

Archives are important to manage so that they can be used for various purposes, both for historical purposes, research, and as legal evidence.

This activity is a form of our commitment to improve the quality of archives and BMN management, which is better and in accordance with applicable laws and regulations," he added.

Welcoming the activity, Susanti, as a resource person from the National Archives of the Republic of Indonesia (ANRI), explained that archives are things that cannot be underestimated because if they are not managed properly, they will harm the work unit itself. 

Archives are both simple and difficult. The challenge is how to manage archives well so that they are easy to find later when they are needed,' she explained.

Susanti went on to say that understanding archival management necessitates a collaborative effort, from creation to maintenance and transfer, as well as an understanding of the rules that apply. As an archival institution, ANRI also urges each work unit to be able to maintain the authenticity of documents so that they can be used in the future as reference materials or for research. 

We cannot manage archives effectively if we do not understand the rules. We have to work together so that hopefully everyone can archive according to the rules, and ANRI plays a role as a supervisor in archive management.

In addition to archiving practice, the activity also presented material on the official script as the beginning of the archiving process. The material was presented by Adityo Wibowo from the General Office of the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Transport. In addition, Artha Eka Wijaya from the Secretariat of the Directorate General of Railways also presented material on the governance of the BMN. (DPP)