PROTECTION OF PERSONNEL AND FISCAL RECORDS FOR EMERGENCY USE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70-00211R001000050003-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: R
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 8, 2014
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: November 16, 1951
• Content Type: MEMO

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GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION
WASHINGTON 25, D. C.
? TO: Heads of Federal Agencies
SUBJECT: Protection of Personnel and Fiscal Records for Emergency Use"
An important element in preparing plans for assuring the availability
of records of the Daderal Government essential for its operation in an ,
emergency has been the development of a Government-wide program for the
protection of personnel and fiscal records common to all agencies. Many
individual agencies have asked for information about Government-wide plans
for these records.
?
The head of each agency is responsible for ensuring that his agency
will be able to operate underemergency conditions, but because many
personnel and fiscal records are common to many or' a).]. agencies it has
seemed advisable to develop a program for their protection on a Government-
wide basis, basis. Representatives of the Civil Service Commission, the General
. Accounting Office, the Budget Bureau, and the General Services Administration
have accordingly developed the attached "Recommended Program for the
Protection of Personnel and Fiscal Records for Emergency Use."
Circumstances within individual agencies may make it possible for an
agency to ignore these suggestions; in other cases agencies may find it
necessary to develop more elaborate programs to fit their own needs. Unless
heads of agencies are entirely satisfied that their measures for protecting
such records are adequate, however, it is suggested that careful considera-
tion be given to putting this recommended program into effect as rapidly as
possible.
Inquiries concerning these recommendations may be referred to E. G.
Campbell (Room 104, National Archives Building, Telephone Code 154 extension
5185) of the staff of the National Archives and Records Service.
Attedinient-
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,GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION
.ITASHINGTON 25, D. C.
November 16, 1951
Recommended Program for the Protection of
Personnel and Fiscal Records for Emergency Use
1. General. The program set forth below deals with records relating to
civilian employees of the Federal Governnent and with fiscal records,
insofar as the records are concerned with functions common to many
or all agencies. This program is based on two underlying assumptions:
(1) that special protective measures can practicably be undertaken only
for the minimum core of docunents necessary to protect the legal
rights of citizens and of the Government, and (2) that in most cases
decentralization and dispersal to scattered storage locations offer
the best and most practicable measures for the protection of records.
2. Personnel Records. The Civil Service Commission, the Bureau of the
Budget, the General Accounting Office, and the General Services
Administration have studied jointly what special protective measures
are required. As a result, the following special precautions are
being taken by these agencies or are recommended to protect the
personnel records of all agencies:
Forms 2806 showing service and deduction data:
(1) The forms covering separated, transferred, and retired
employees are in the Retirement Division of the Civil Service
Commission. Funds have been appropriated for protecting the-
essential information in these files.
(2) The forms covering personnel currently employed are physically
dispersed in more than 2,000 locations. It is believed that
for the most part the present dispersal furnishes adequate .
protection. However, it is recommended that agencies located
in target areas adopt either of two possible methods of pro-
tecting the data on the forms: (1) if individual earning
record cards (Standard 'Form 1127 or its equivalent) covering
all service of employees are available, those earning cards
that have been closed out should be transferred to a
decentralized location (see paragraph c(3) below); (2) if no
such individual earning records are available, agencies should
duplicate their Forms 2806 by microfilming them and transferring
the microfilm copies to a decentralized location.
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b. Personal history files showing service data:
(1) The Service Records Division of the Civil Service Commission
has skeleton files on all employees. Decentralization was
suggested for these records but funds were not provided. ,
Duplication is not practical. Renee, for the time being,
reliance will be placed on the information in the official
personnel folders and the Civil Service Commission register
cards or certification files in case of total destruction
of the Commission's service record file.
(2) The official personnel folders are currently dispersed in
more than 2,000 locations and, in view of the summary
information available in the Forms 2806 and in Forms 7
(Service Record Card), this dispersion seems to afford
adequate protection.
c. Primary pay records showing service and deduction data:
(1) The Comptroller General has made arrangements providing that
copies of periodic payrolls received by the General Accounting
Office with accounts of the Treasury Department disbursing
officers (including Washington) will be sent to decentralized
locations, where they will be retained as security copies.
(2) It is expected that the Comptroller General will complete
necessary arrangements for the transfer from possible target
areas to a relatively safe location of all comprehensive pay-
rolls which are subject to site audit and therefore normally
remain in the custody of individual agencies. ,
(3) It is recommended that all agencies having individual earning
record cards (Standard Form 1)27 or its equivalent) closed out
by April 1$ 1951, in coastal metropolitan areas, including
Washington, transfer them to decentralized locations, and that
thereafter future cards be transferred to the same points
annully three months after the close of the year.
(4) In order to protect the records showing balances of accumulated
and current accrued annual leave to the credit of employees
it is recommended that the leave record cards (Standard Form
1130 or its equivalent), covering the final pay period of each
calendar year, be associated with the individual earning record
cards (Standard Form 1)27 or its equivalent) before such cards
are forwarded to records centers or field offices.
Storage facilities for records to be decentralized will be furnished
by the General Services Administration at Federal Records Centers for
any agency not having appropriate space available in its own field offices.
Special arrangements for shipping the records to Federal Records Centers
may be made with the Records Management Division, National Archives and
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Records Service (Code 151, extension 5183).
3. Fiscal Records. The General Accounting Office and the General Services
Administration have collaborated in considering needs for the protection
of accounting, procurement, and other financial records. Included in
this category (in addition to those relating to employees' pay) are the
records that make up the accounts transmitted by the various agencies
to the General Accounting Office in Washington and to its decentralized
locations, as well as those being held by the agencies for site audit
purposes.
Essential accounting, procurement, and other documents which are
forwarded to the General Accounting Office in Washington ordinarily
could be reconstructed from copies of contracts, vouchers, schedules,
and related papers normally retained in originating agencies. It is
believed that the risk must be taken that this duplication will afford
adequate protection for necessary accounting information.
In the case of agencies located in Washington and in the case of
agencies with records being held for site audit purposes it is recognized
that both the original and duplicate copies of these fiscal papers will in
many cases be maintained in a possible target area. There are so many
such possible target areas, however, that it is doubtful whether dispersal
of extra copies of these records could be sufficiently coordinated to the
point where such a program would be satisfactory from an operating point
of view. After careful consideration of all the factors involved, it is
the feeling of the Comptroller General, in which the Administrator of
General Services concurs, that, because of the volume, nature, and widely
dispersed locations of the subject records and the excessive costs that
would be involved in reproducing, transporting, storing, and servicing
them a calculated risk of their loss must be accepted and that, with the
exception of the pay records noted above, no change in the present policy
maintaining and protecting these classes of records in the various agencies
should be made at this time.
In considering the classes of fiscal records that agencies should
protect in order to continue emergency operations under emergency
conditions, the Comptroller General recommends that special attention be
given those documents that are utilized to insure the constant flow of
revenue into the Treasury and those involving, generally, the Government's
credit* since the availability of funds is basic to the continuation of
operations under any conditions. These classes of records are not common
to all at-alleles, however, and should be included in the protection plans
of the several agencies concerned.
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