To meet their obligation for adequate and proper documentation, agencies must prescribe the creation and maintenance of records that:

(a) Document the persons, places, things, or matters dealt with by the agency.

(b) Facilitate action by agency officials and their successors in office.

(c) Make possible a proper scrutiny by the Congress or other duly authorized agencies of the Government.

(d) Protect the financial, legal, and other rights of the Government and of persons directly affected by the Government's actions.

(e) Document the formulation and execution of basic policies and decisions and the taking of necessary actions, including all substantive decisions and commitments reached orally (person-to-person, by telecommunications, or in conference) or electronically.

(f) Document important board, committee, or staff meetings.

(a) Agencies must ensure that procedures, directives and other issuances; systems planning and development documentation; and other relevant records include recordkeeping requirements for records in all media, including those records created or received on electronic mail systems. Recordkeeping requirements must:

(1) Identify and prescribe specific categories of records to be systematically created or received and maintained by agency personnel in the course of their official duties;

(2) Specify the use of materials and recording techniques that ensure the preservation of records as long as they are needed by the Government;

(3) Specify the manner in which these materials must be maintained wherever held;

(4) Propose how long records must be maintained for agency business through the scheduling process in part 1225 of this subchapter;

(5) Distinguish records from nonrecord materials and comply with the provisions in Subchapter B concerning records scheduling and disposition;

(6) Include procedures to ensure that departing officials and employees do not remove Federal records from agency custody and remove nonrecord materials only in accordance with § 1222.18;

(7) Define the special recordkeeping responsibilities of program managers, information technology staff, systems administrators, and the general recordkeeping responsibilities of all agency employees.

(b) Agencies must provide the training described in § 1220.34(f) of this subchapter and inform all employees that they are responsible and accountable for keeping accurate and complete records of their activities.

(a) To ensure the adequate and proper documentation of agency programs, each program must develop recordkeeping requirements that identify:

(1) The record series and systems that must be created and maintained to document program policies, procedures, functions, activities, and transactions;

(2) The office responsible for maintaining the record copies of those series and systems, and the applicable system administrator responsible for ensuring authenticity, protection, and ready retrieval of electronic records;

(3) Related records series and systems;

(4) The relationship between paper and electronic files in the same series; and

(5) Policies, procedures, and strategies for ensuring that records are retained long enough to meet programmatic, administrative, fiscal, legal, and historical needs as authorized in a NARA-approved disposition schedule.

(b) Agencies must capture, manage, and preserve electronic records with appropriate metadata and must be able to access and retrieve electronic records, including electronic messages, through electronic searches.

To ensure that record series and systems adequately document agency policies, transactions, and activities, each program must develop recordkeeping requirements for records series and systems that include:

(a) Identification of information and documentation that must be included in the series and/or system;

(b) Arrangement of each series and the records within the series and/or system;

(c) Identification of the location of the records and the staff responsible for maintaining the records;

(d) Policies and procedures for maintaining the documentation of phone calls, meetings, instant messages, and electronic mail exchanges that include substantive information about agency policies and activities;

(e) Policies and procedures for identifying working files and for determining the record status of working files in paper and electronic form; and

(f) Policies and procedures for maintaining series consisting of different media.

Agencies must comply with recordkeeping requirements that are imposed government-wide by another agency with jurisdiction over the program or activity being conducted, e.g., requirements for records concerning hazardous waste. Affected agencies must include these requirements in appropriate directives or other official issuances prescribing the agency's organization, functions, or activities.

(a) Agency officials responsible for administering contracts must safeguard records created, processed, or in the possession of a contractor or a non-Federal entity by taking the following steps:

(1) Agencies must ensure that contractors performing Federal government agency functions create and maintain records that document these activities. Agencies must specify in the contract Government ownership and the delivery to the Government of all records necessary for the adequate and proper documentation of contractor-operated agency activities and programs in accordance with requirements of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) (Office of Federal Procurement Policy Act of 1974 (Pub. L. 93-400), as amended by Pub. L. 96-83 41 U.S.C.), and, where applicable, the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) (48 CFR parts 200-299).

(2) Records management oversight of contract records is necessary to ensure that all recordkeeping needs are met. All records created for Government use and delivered to, or under the legal control of, the Government must be managed in accordance with Federal law. In addition, electronic records and background electronic data specified for delivery to the contracting agency must be accompanied by sufficient technical documentation to permit understanding and use of the records and data.

(3) Contracts that require the creation of data for the Government's use must specify, in addition to the final product, delivery of background supporting data or other records that may have reuse value to the Government. To determine what background supporting data or other records that contractors must deliver, program and contracting officials must consult with agency records and information managers and historians and, when appropriate, with other Government agencies to ensure that all Government needs are met, especially when the data deliverables support a new agency mission or a new Government program.

(4) Deferred ordering and delivery-of-data clauses and rights-in-data clauses must be included in contracts whenever necessary to ensure adequate and proper documentation or because the data have reuse value to the Government.

(b) All data created for Government use and delivered to, or falling under the legal control of, the Government are Federal records subject to the provisions of 44 U.S.C. chapters 21, 29, 31, and 33, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) (5 U.S.C. 552), as amended, and the Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. 552a), as amended, and must be managed and scheduled for disposition only as provided in Subchapter B.

(c) Agencies must ensure that appropriate authority for retention of classified materials has been granted to contractors or non-Government entities participating in the National Industrial Security Program (NISP), established under Executive order 12829, as amended, or a successor Order.

Agencies must implement a records maintenance program so that complete records are filed or otherwise identified and preserved, records can be readily found when needed, and permanent and temporary records are physically segregated from each other or, for electronic records, segregable. Agency records maintenance programs must:

(a) Institute procedures for organizing and storing records;

(b) Maintain electronic, audiovisual and cartographic, and microform records in accordance with 36 CFR parts 1236, 1237, and 1238 of this subchapter, respectively;

(c) Assign responsibilities for maintenance of records in all formats within each agency component, including designation of the officials that are responsible for maintenance and disposition of electronic records and management of automated systems used for recordkeeping;

(d) Institute reference and retrieval procedures and controls that:

(1) Facilitate the finding, charging out, and refiling of records, including safeguards against loss during transit; and

(2) Ensure that access to electronic records minimizes the risk of unauthorized additions, deletions, or alterations;

(e) Issue appropriate instructions to all agency employees on handling and protecting records;

(f) Maintain records and nonrecord materials separately, in accordance with § 1222.16;

(g) Maintain personal files separately from records in accordance with § 1222.20; and

(h) Comply with 36 CFR parts 1232 and 1234 of this subchapter when storing records in a records facility.