RECORDS DISPOSAL

Information documents of actions and decisions made at policy level activities as well as in the field and fleet units, both important and unimportant, are distributed throughout the Department of the Navy on an increasing basis. Records disposal techniques must keep pace with these increased production and dissemination techniques. Temporary records must be identified, scheduled, and regularly destroyed, and permanent records must be identified and marked for preservation.

Congress has passed statutory and regulatory laws that govern the disposition of official records, both classified and unclassified and affixed penalties for their unauthorized destruction. The scheduling of government records is given legal status by the Records Disposal Act of 1943, as amended by the Federal Records Act of 1950. This amendment states that, as part of the responsibility for the establishment of a continuing agencywide records program, the Secretary of the Navy should propose retention and disposal instructions for all major series of Navy records. Article 1127 of the U.S. Navy Regulations, 1990, provides that no person may destroy or withdraw official records without proper authority. OPNAVINST 5510.1 provides for the destruction of classified matter. This and other regulations for safeguarding security information must be followed at all times in applying the provisions outlined in the Navy and Marine Corps Records Disposition Manual, SECNAVINST 5212.5.

One of the duties of a senior AK is to be able to determine what records should be held in the files for a period of time or what records should be destroyed or transferred for preservation.

Retention Standards

The records retention standards are the basis for the establishment of a command records disposal program. A retention standard denotes a description of a recorder series of records with a retention period stated in terms of time before the destruction or disposition. Refer to SECNAVINST 5212.5, Part III, for listing of retention standards for naval records.

Retiring Words to Local Storage Areas

Most supply records are short-term temporary records eligible for destruction in less than 5 years, and the bulk of these records have retention periods of 2 years or less. These short-term records should be cut off at regular intervals, retired locally, and destroyed by the accumulating activity as soon as their retention periods have expired. Generally, it is not economical to transfer them to federal records centers.

Spaces not suitable for normal office use such as basements, vacated warehouses, or other unoccupied spaces that are unattended and do not require specialized storage equipment are normally used for local storage areas.

Records eligible for local retirement must be short-term records that are eligible for destruction in 5 years or less and long-term records that must be retained close at hand until the frequency of reference to the records will permit their transfer to the federal records center.

Transfer to Federal Records Centers

Procedures for transferring records to federal records centers (FRCs) are outlined in SECNAVINST 5212.5, Appendix C. Activities are authorized to transfer records to FRCs under the following conditions:

l When the records are specifically designated in SECNAVINST 5212.5 for periodic transfer and designated as permanent or indefinite retention.

l Records have at least 3 years retention period at the FRC.

l Records are inactive and are not required for local operating purposes.

. It is cost effective to transfer the records to an FRC vice store them locally.

Activities should not transfer records to federal records centers under the following conditions:

When inactive files are eligible for destruction within 3 years. 

. l When the quantity is less than 1 cubic foot of records. Small accumulations of expired retention records should beheld until the quantity accumulated is sufficient to justify transfer. 

. When cost of transfer to the FRC outweighs cost of local storage.

Except when categories of records are designated specifically for transfer to a specific federal records center, activities should transfer eligible records to the nearest federal records center servicing the area as listed in SECNAVINST 5212.5, Appendix C.