Records Management
Records Management for REE
Every day REE Agencies staff conduct research and other business that affect all Americans and in doing so record and keep information about their actions. This website is designed to provide agency staff with the information and tools necessary to ensure that full and accurate records are created and managed to support the American Government and the interests of its citizens.
Every REE agency employee creates records and is therefore responsible for managing agency records. Anyone who creates a document using a word processing application, enters information into a database, files a document in a folder, records observations in a lab notebook, or does anything else that fulfills an agency function is a records custodian, and is responsible for ensuring the safety, timely availability, and proper disposition of the records in their custody.
Benefits
Records are managed through a records management program, which controls the creation, use, and disposition of all records, regardless of format. Records management provides practical tools and techniques to manage all records, regardless of format, through the entirety of their life cycle, from creation to final disposition, in an efficient, cost-effective manner. A properly implemented records management program will ensure that information is available when and where it is needed, in an organized and efficient manner. Records management comprises all the recordkeeping requirements that allow an organization to establish and maintain control over information flow and administrative operations, so that the agencies can remain accountable to the public and agency staff can make timely and informed decisions.
An effective records management program will:
- Protect the legal and financial rights of the Government and of all persons affected by agency action [44 USC 3101].
- Ensure compliance with legal, administrative, fiscal, and historical retention requirements.
- Preserve institutional memory by ensuring the retention of records with enduring value.
- Ensure the proper creation and preservation of records that adequately document agency accomplishments, activities, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, and essential transactions.
- Establish control over creation of new records.
- Save space, time and money while improving access by
- Clearing out old records to make room for the new records which are constantly created
- Eliminating the costly duplication of records and information
- Destroying records that have served their usefulness after legal/fiscal requirements have been met
- Transferring to less costly storage records no longer needed frequently but which still have value or must be retained
- Restricting filing equipment and office space to housing active records only
- Providing for the efficient location and retrieval of information.
- Enhance security.
- Identify, protect, and manage vital records.
An integrated records management program will therefore enable agency staff to:
- Promptly locate accurate information.
- Provide faster and more accurate responses to Congressional inquiries, Freedom of Information Act requests, and other audits, inquiries, and investigations.
- Devote a greater portion of time to serving customers.
By identifying inactive files and transferring them to offsite storage, and discarding nonrecord material, staff will also realize substantial cost savings for the Department. It costs approximately $40 per cubic foot to store inactive records at USDA, but only about $2 per cubic foot to store inactive records at a Federal Records Center, thus saving the USDA about $38 per cubic foot of records. Costs are further reduced when less floor space and filing cabinets are needed to store records, and staff spends less time on research and file location.
Applicable laws and directives
In addition, you must follow Records Management Procedures as mandated by the following laws:
- 44 USC Chapters 21, 29, 31, and 33, Federal Records Act
- 18 USC Chapter 101 Records and Reports – Section 2071, Concealment, removal, or mutilation generally
- 5 USC Chapter 552, Freedom of Information Act
- 36 CFR, Chapter 12, Subchapter B, Records Management
which are further defined in the following Departmental Regulations:
REE Records Management Homepage
Last updated: 05/14/2007
