Aug 12, 2024
The preservation of records is vital for many reasons. It is one of the major components of accountability, ensuring that governments explain to their citizens how money is spent and the way decisions are taken. It also serves to satisfy a basic human need to be aware of the past by allowing people to look back over time and see how the world has changed. It is an essential element of good governance, and is the foundation for a free society. It is also a base for privacy protection because it prevents companies and organizations from storing sensitive information for a long time. This would violate the principle of business governance and expose a business to legal actions.
Retention of public records is controlled at the state and federal level and agencies are responsible for understanding and researching their requirements for record keeping and creating schedules for records to satisfy those requirements. Many agencies have designated records liaisons and officers accountable for the development of policies as well as procedures and systems which will ensure that the guidelines in the schedules of records are met consistently and regularly by their organization.
These schedules are organized according to records type or series. Each record series has its own retention period which is determined by the historical fiscal, administrative, and legal value of the information in the record series. For example, a hand-written record that is later keyed into an electronic data system will usually not be kept longer than the original paper record.