RECORDS MANAGEMENT AND ITS RETENTION FOR THE FUTURE (CLASSIFICATION)

Records constitute an important part of any office and it is, therefore essential that these may be retained and properly cared for. As such record management is necessary for the office and staff as well as authority and is very wide and includes interalia  principles, practices and skill needed for achieving the most effective creation , use , maintenance, retention , protection, preservation and weeding/ elimination of record .The main purposes of the record management are as follows:-- (1) To speed up the location of and references to record as a means of speeding up disposal of business.(2) To effect savings in cost of creating, locating, using,. maintaining, retaining , preserving and eliminating record .(3) A scrupulous avoidance of creation of unnecessary record in all offices .It is the foremost duty of all offices and officers to see that only that record is created in the Department as is essential.(4) It is also necessary to retain only the necessary active and required records .(5) Audit of record creation which requires consistent vigilance on the part of officers to ensure that the reports , returns and the Statements as well as required registers etc ,are prepared and maintained in the various offices under their control and required for the efficient functioning of the department, are the minimum required and for which the Recording is the process of closing of a file after action on all the issues under consideration thereon  has been completed as required there in the process followed .As and when the Branch officer and the dealing hand is satisfied that no further action is required to be taken on a file, he will put it up to the branch incharge for the required approval being recorded on the said file to be closed under the classification of period prescribed for retention to be taken to run from the date of final order on the file .All important files or notes containing orders for future guidance or established precedents will be retained permanently. Cases in which conduct of the officers has been noticed and entries made in the character rolls maintained by the department will be retained so long as the officer affected remains in the service .