Understanding Records Management: The Role of Agency Heads and Records Officers

The head of a public agency has a key role in ensuring the implementation of a records management program. By the terms of KRS 171.680, the agency head is required to establish and maintain an active, continuing program for the economical, efficient management of the records of his agency. The law mandates that this program should include:

• effective controls over the creation, maintenance, and use of records in the conduct of current business;
• cooperation with the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives in applying standards, procedures, and techniques designed to improve the management of records;
• promotion of the maintenance and security of records considered appropriate for preservation, and facilitation of the segregation and disposal of records of temporary value; and
• compliance with the provisions of the Commonwealth's public records management statutes, KRS 171.410 - 171.740 and the rules and regulations of the department.

While a records schedule is a comprehensive expression of the agency's information resources, it also reflects the way an agency meets the requirements of KRS 171.640 and is accountable to legislative bodies and the public. Under the terms of that statute, the agency head is assigned explicit responsibility for ensuring that records containing adequate and proper documentation of the organizational functions,policies, decisions, procedures, and essential transactions of the agency. This would include records designed to furnish information necessary to protect the legal and financial rights of the government and of persons directly affected by a government agency's activities - are made and preserved.

Another important role delegated to the agency is ensuring the proper storage of records. By the terms of KRS 171.690, whenever an agency head determines that substantial economies or increased operating efficiency can be achieved, he is directed to provide for the storage, processing and servicing of appropriate records in the State Records Center maintained and operated by the Department for Libraries and Archives or, when approved by the department, in a location maintained and operated by the agency itself.

Providing for the protection of records is another essential responsibility delegated to agencies, and as directed by KRS 171.710, the agency head is required to establish such safeguards against removal or loss of records as he believes necessary and as may be required by department rules and regulations. These safeguards must include making it known to all officials and employees of the agency that no records are to be transferred, turned over to another, or destroyed except in accordance with law, and calling their attention to the penalties provided by law for the unlawful removal or destruction of records.

The agency head is also directed to notify the department of any actual, impending or threatened unlawful removal, defacing, alteration or destruction of records in the custody of the agency that may come to his attention, and with the department's assistance, to initiate action through the Attorney General for recovery of any records which may have been unlawfully removed and for any other redress as may be provided for by law. Penalties are established in statute for violations of the key elements of Kentucky's public records management law, and for state employees, these can include dismissal from state employment. Kentucky's tampering with public records statute (KRS 519.060) and its laws dealing with unlawful access to a computer (KRS 434.845-.850) and misuse of computer information (KRS 434.855) describe various records related offenses which are punishable as felonies under the Kentucky penal code.

Records Officers

A Records Officer is the person named by the agency head to serve as his official liaison on records management issues with the Department for Libraries and Archives and to coordinate records management within the agency. He typically works with his agency's staff to compile (or update) a records retention schedule in draft form, prior to its review by Department for Libraries and Archives' personnel and the State Archives and Records Commission. The schedule is subject to detailed analysis at this stage, including an assessment by legal and audit staff to ensure that it meets relevant requirements in those areas for each record listed.

In addition to maintaining the currency of the agency's retention schedule, the Records Officer monitors records management practices in the agency, advises the agency head and agency staff on records management procedures, coordinates collection and forwarding of state publications, participates in the agency's Information Resources Planning process, coordinates the transfer of records, and supervises the authorized destruction of records which occurs within the agency.