Purpose – The existence of policy serves as a guideline to facilitate actions and decisions to be taken.

Electronic records management should be driven and guided by clear, comprehensive, understandable

policy, to direct the organization and ascertain the effectiveness of functions implemented. The

purpose of this paper is to find out whether government agencies in Malaysia do possess such a policy

for electronic records management. In addition, the aim is to identify the responsible party for the

policy besides investigating the sources referred to in developing the policy.

Design/methodology/research – The survey employs a questionnaire to gather the data from 25

selected government departments in Klang Valley and Putrajaya, Malaysia.

Findings – As anticipated, not all government departments possess electronic records management

policy far from complete, clear, and easy to implement. Most surveyed samples are executing policy

provided by Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU) and

National Archive of Malaysia (NAM) with some modifications to suit their needs. On the other hand,

the number of organization carrying out electronic records management without any policy in place is

alarming.

Practical implications – Electronic records management is carried out in some organisations

merely based on their instinct and initiatives, far from complying with international standards of best

practice.