General Disposal Authorities Harvey Brahne

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General Disposal AuthoritiesHarvey Brahne
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General Disposal Authorities

• A GDA is a disposal authority that authorises
  government agencies to dispose of housekeeping
  and other records common across agencies, e.g.,
  for Financial Records.
• A disposal authorisation is a legal instrument,
  signed by both the Chief Archivist and the
  responsible government agency. It grants the
  agency authority to destroy or transfer
  particular records.
• A disposal schedule is a continuing authority
  for implementing decisions on the value of
  records specified in the schedule.
• General disposal schedules cover functions common
  to a number of agencies, typically used by
  government archival authorities to cover
  functional areas such as Personnel, Finance and
  Stores.

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Housekeeping Records

• Records that agencies routinely create to help
  in their administrative activities. They include
  records that relate to accommodation, property
  and works, staff and establishment, finance and
  accounting, tenders and contracts, and general
  administration. These functions are generally
  common to all agencies and records pertaining to
  them may be disposed of under General Disposal
  Authorities. (Australian Archives Handbook,
  Appendix 1, p.114)
• Policy and procedure records relating to
  housekeeping records are also included in the
  ambit of GDAs.

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Advantages of GDAs

• Allow agencies to dispose of records in a timely
  fashion, saving agencies administrative and
  storage costs.
• Ongoing authority allows agencies to dispose of
  records without constant recourse to Archives New
  Zealand they do not have to do the appraisal
  themselves or pay someone else to do it.
• Facillitates a more efficient control of records
  management systems from the time of record
  creation.
• Schedules can easily be amended to take into
  account changes to records systems/legislative
  compliance, etc.
• Can be applied to records in all media.

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International New Zealand Experience

• We are drawing upon the expertise developed in
  the formulation of General Disposal Authorities
  by overseas archives in the UK, US, Canada, and,
  in particular, Commonwealth and State Archives in
  Australia.
• We have adapted their experience to the New
  Zealand context in the development of GDAs,
  taking account of existing individual agency
  disposal authorities.

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How they are used

• Once an agency and the Chief Archivist have
  signed off on a GDA, the agency may begin
  implementing the disposal recommendations.
• Records that meet the requirements may be
  disposed of immediately.
• Agencies can use the implementation guide
  accompanying the GDAs to dispose of records.
• For electronic records, agencies can tag the
  records with disposal triggers electronically.
• Archives New Zealand will provide advice on
  implementation of the schedule.

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What they will look like

• The GDAs will follow the Archives New Zealand
  disposal schedule template Record Class,
  Description of Class, Agency Retention Period,
  Disposal Action.
• Accompanying implementation guide with
  explanatory notes, including discussion on some
  of the legislative requirements, transfer
  requirements such as listing, and restrictions to
  certain classes of records.
• Available on the Continuum website, distribution
  of copies to all agencies.
• Possibly an official launch.

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Example of GDA page

• Record Class Description Agency Retention
  Period Disposal Action
• PROPERTY
• CONTRACT
• DOCUMENTS 10.1 Deeds of title 10 years
  after date of last action Retain as public
• ownership archive
• 10.2 Records of patents 10 years after
  date of last action Retain as public trade
  marks owned by
  archive agency
• 10.4 Routine contracts for When all
  conditions have been Destroy supply,
  purchase, services, met administratively
  no rentalsetc, e.g longer
  required purchase of stationery supply
• maintenance agreements
• telephone equipment rentals

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What agencies need to consider for implementing
the schedule

• Staff training with assistance from Government
  Recordkeeping Group.
• Agency application policy for GDAs, particularly
  at the record creation stage.

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How agencies can assist

• Archives New Zealand is interested in feedback.
  We are happy to send e-drafts to agencies
  interested in making comments.
• At this stage input from agencies is vital for
  the development of effective and workable GDAs.
• What information would you find useful?