Legal Value of Records Example
Although recording the assessment usually involves determining the layout of a series or system as a whole, NARA sometimes selects only individual files from a series for permanent preservation. This selection can be qualitative (based on the informational content of the files) or quantitative (based on a random or statistical sample). When recommending such a selection, organizations should indicate the nature and method of proposed implementation. Assessment is the process by which NARA evaluates documents to determine their final disposal, labeling them as temporary (disposable) or permanent (archived). It is fundamental to have the documents, which is fundamental for the overall management of documents and information. The assessment process is complex and difficult, and requires an understanding of the following: Records with tax value relate to an agency`s financial transactions. These can include budgets, payslips, receipts and accounting documents. Once records have fulfilled their primary administrative purpose, they may need to be retained to document public expenditures and to report on audit purposes and requirements. Records management involves several core activities that each program must perform to ensure program effectiveness. Records should be uniquely identified, serialized, and stored in offices using file plans that document the method used to organize records. Records must be reasonably planned in accordance with Wisconsin State law, clearly indicating their retention period and disposition. The disposal of records must be consistent and systematic and must be legal and in accordance with appropriate timelines.
Documents with legal value include those that have evidence of legally enforceable rights or obligations of the state. These may include: Documents with legal value contain information that can be used to support rights based on the provisions of laws or regulations. These provisions may be of a general nature, such as the limitation period for claims or fraud; Or they can be specific, such as providing benefits to people discharged from the military. After completing and reviewing the inventory, records managers should review the inventory to gain insight into the organization`s documentation practices. It is useful to consider these three characteristics of federal organizations` records: when a record reaches the end of its intended retention period, it must be disposed of according to the approved schedule. The files are destroyed or, in the case of documents of historical value, transferred to the corresponding archives on the UW campus. Confidential documents must be shredded if they are in physical form. Confidential documents in electronic form must be deleted in such a way that the information contained therein is not recorded and stored elsewhere. The documents fall into three categories: those that are easy to evaluate because they are obviously permanent, those that are easy to evaluate because they are clearly temporary, and those in between that are difficult to evaluate. Some documents, such as treaties, laws, implementing orders and Supreme Court decisions, obviously have lasting value.
Similarly, administrative or budgetary documents are clearly only of temporary value and are available after a reasonable retention period. My last post was about defining administrative value. However, the records we create as government employees also have other values. As I mentioned earlier, we analysts establish retention periods for these records based on these different values. Now let`s look at each remaining value and its associated records. Before recommending retention periods for records that may have the force of law, organizations should seek the advice of their General Counsel. Factors to consider when determining retention periods include applicable limitation periods, regulatory limits for claims or suits, potential for fraud, and litigation trends related to procedural or substantive rights. They also include certain laws or regulations that grant or restrict a particular right, as well as the availability of the same information in other sets or systems of records.
The following is an example of a permanent planning item that contains an example. Tax value records are those that complete and document financial authorizations, obligations and transactions. They are often audited and must therefore be retained for the period during which an audit can be initiated. We have included wording in the appendix to remind you not to destroy certain documents that are being audited, but we cannot capture all of them, so you should know what documents you are responsible for that can be audited and keep them accordingly. If you know that your office, for example, has to help the State Auditor`s Office audit grants or something like that, let us know. And if you think it`s possible for an audit to take place in the future, don`t destroy the records, even if your recording schedule says you can. Once audits are completed, tax records often lose value quickly. Organizations should maintain records indicating that they have fully considered legal rights when proposing retention periods for draft records. In addition to the general administrative value, some documents may have a tax value.
Records with tax value document the Agency`s financial transactions and obligations. This includes budget records that show how expenditures were planned. supporting documents or proof of expenditures indicating the purposes for which the funds were spent; and accounting records that classify and summarize the Agency`s expenditures. Agencies such as the Office of Management and Budget, the Office of General Accounting, the Department of the Treasury and the General Services Administration prescribe the form and content of many tax records. In most cases, only the data on the forms differs from one agency to another. As a result, the Schedules to General Records (CGRs) provide disposition authorities for many temporary tax documents. Legal value has long been associated with documents documenting issues such as benefits and ownership. More recently, however, it has also been identified with records documenting potential environmental and health issues, such as the handling or regulation of chemical and nuclear materials.
When assessing its documents and preparing disposal instructions, the Agency should make appropriate use of the General Schedules to Documents (GIS) while continuing to develop a draft comprehensive schedule of files. Such a draft schedule is based on CBC records disposition authorities and one or more approved requests for records disposition authority. To be complete, accurate, reliable and authentic, recordings must have content, context and structure. These concepts are crucial for creating and understanding a dataset, but are particularly important for understanding digital datasets. Similar records related by creator and function are grouped into entities called record series. Each series is assigned a specific retention period, i.e. the time it takes for the recordings to meet their legal, financial or administrative requirements. The Records Retention Disposition Authorization (RDA in local jargon) is the document that lists these items. It describes the recordings at the series level, including a brief description of the content and type of medium; means the retention period; and gives instructions for the final disposition. Under Wisconsin law, all government agencies, including UW campuses, create ROAs for all dataset sets they create. Calendars expire every ten years, or “sunset,” and each campus should have a regular review process to submit sunset plans to the Public Archives Commission for renewal. The UW system works with its constituent campuses to develop common records plans that apply to common classes of management records that occur throughout the system.
