ADMINISTRATION AND CORPORATE SERVICES RECORDS

Disposal Authority Number:	DA 169 / GDA 4
Agency Coverage:	All public offices
Expiry Date:	August 2016
Scope:	Administration and Corporate Services Records
Authorised by:	The Chief Archivist, Archives New Zealand

> GENERAL DISPOSAL AUTHORITY: ADMINISTRATION AND CORPORATE SERVICES RECORDS

This General Disposal Authority (hereafter GDA) is for the use of State sector agencies wishing to dispose of records legally. Information about using the GDA is contained in the General Disposal Authorities Implementation Guide, which should be consulted before the GDA is used. The Guide outlines the processes for public offices to follow when implementing the GDA disposal recommendations, and gives advice on other recordkeeping issues such as access and transfer.

The disposal recommendations in the GDA are:

Retain as public archive = transfer to the control of the Chief Archivist at the end of the public office retention period, or any peroid of agreed deferral of transfer.
Destroy = destruction to be carried out in a secure manner. It is not mandatory to destroy records at the end of the retention period, they may be kept for longer.
Retain for appraisal = arrange for the records to be appraised and refer the Appraisal Report to the Appraisal Section of Archives New Zealand.

These general instructions apply to the entire authority:

This authority covers all records, including paper and electronic formats. Under the Public Records Act 2005 a public record is, briefly, a record created or recieved by a public office in the conduct of its affairs, while a record is information that is compiled, recorded or sorted in any format.
Records examples are only representative of records types, and are not an exhaustive list.
The onus is on each public office to establish its legal obligations for record retention. This GDA does not provide identification of record retention requirements under statute or statutory regulation.
If you think that a record marked for destruction ought to be preserved permanently, DO NOT DESTROY IT. Contact the Appraisal section of Archives New Zealand to discuss options for further appraisal.
All records created prior to 1946 must be retained for appraisal.
If an agency has suffered a loss of records in any of the categories covered by this GDA due to disaster (fire, flood, earthquake, etc.) or unauthorised destructions, then you should consult Archives New Zealand for advice before implementing the authority.

NB. Where there is concern over application of a disposal class take the more conservative option.

A valid disposal authority is not a defence or excuse for destroying or otherwise disposing of records for a fraudulent or illegal purpose.

Scope

This General Disposal Authority covers:

Those records managed by a specific Administrative or Corporate Support unit within an agency.

AND

Those records not created in such a unit, but which support the general administration and operation of an organisation.

This General Disposal Authority does NOT cover:

Those records related to governance, strategic planning and policy affecting the discharge of core obligations to government.
Those records relating to the core functions of any public office
- e.g. Library policy can be disposed of, except where core business is creating or operating a library, such as the National Library.
- e.g. 5.7 allows destruction of statistical instruments except where a core function is collecting and administering statistics, such as Department of Statistics.
- e.g. 5.14 allows destruction of records of VIP visits except where a core function is administering such visits, such as the Department of Internal Affairs.

Those records covered by specific legislation requiring retention. The GDA cannot identify all individual agency retention requirements; it is a general guide for disposal only. A public office should always ensure these recommendations are consistant with their own legislation. Where it is not, they will need an agency-specific variation before disposing of any records.