Under federal law, federal agencies must “notify [the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)] of any actual, impending, or threatened unlawful removal, defacing, alteration, corruption, deletion, erasure, or other destruction of records in the custody of the agency (see 36 CFR Part 1230 for the full statute). Upon such notification, NARA creates an “unauthorized disposition case file” and tracks each allegation until resolved.
Overall, unauthorized disposition – damage, loss, destruction, or alteration of records – isn’t too common, and most of them are the result of accidents or legitimate mistakes rather than some kind of malfeasance. Water damage seems to be a particularly common culprit.
NARA still needs to be involved, though. For one thing, they can sometimes help to restore records. For example, after the Forest Service (FS) lost some topographic maps, NARA was able to provide guidance on next steps. As a result, the FS was able to limit the permanent loss to only 20% of the maps originally suspected to be lost.
In other cases, NARA can help correct any lapses in records management processes to prevent future issues. For example, in one situation IRS case files were picked up by mistake by the shred contractor and destroyed. NARA worked with the IRS to adjust their records processes appropriately.
Sometimes NARA uses the investigation to clear agencies when the accusation of unauthorized disposition is unfounded. In one case, a member of the public accused the U.S. Department of Education (“Education”) of illegally destroying emails without reading them. NARA opened a case file in response and investigated. Once Education was able to produce the email in question – disproving the initial claim – NARA closed the investigation.
All told, NARA’s work in investigating unauthorized disposition preserves the integrity and credibility of government agencies.
What does this mean for records managers?
- Convert to electronic records management. Digital handling of important agency records doesn’t necessarily insulate them from unauthorized disposition, but a sizable proportion of NARA’s case files are related to analog files suffering physical damage or loss during transfer. Electronic records storage thus eliminates many of the risks that could lead to unintentional unauthorized disposition.
- Consider the environment in which physical records are stored. As mentioned, a significant number of case files are related to environmental damage. A storage room floods; mold overtakes the paper documents; rodents get into the files; etc. Protecting against environment risks is just as important as mitigating people-related risks.
- Don’t be afraid of using NARA. Creating a case file can feel like an admission of guilt, but often NARA uses these investigations to help agencies resolve the issue or at least mitigate its impact. NARA is the government’s experts when it comes to records management, and they’re an excellent resource when problems occur.
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