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092421 1 (1972-03-01)

handle is hein.gao/gaobacwid0001 and id is 1 raw text is: UNITED STATES GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE WASHINGTON, D.C. 20548 DIVISION OF FINANCIAL AND GENERMAL MANAGEMENT STUDIES B-1147752 MAR 1 1972 Dear r. oot: 0 1 We have reviewed the Department of the Navy's program for stor- age and disposal of contracts and of disbursement and collection vouchers. Our review was made to gain an insight into how efficiently the Navy records disposal program was operating. Our review was performed at the Navy Finance Center, Cleveland, Ohio; three Navy purchasing activities; nine material-receiving activ- ities; and 10 disbursing activities. Questionnaires were sent to 100 Navy activities. At these activities we were interested in determin- ing how many copies of contracts or vouchers were being made, how long the documents were being retained or stored, whether there were ade- quate records disposal procedures prescribed, and whether the reten- tion time periods designated for such records were sound. The Congress, recognizing the need to control the creation and storage of records, provided for a comprehensive records management program in the Federal Records Act of 1950. This act placed the re- sponsibility for an efficient records management program on each Fed- eral agency. The Navy retains 4 billion pieces of paper in its offices and requires 2.2 million cubic feet of space--equal to the space in 300,000 filing cabinets--to hold records. Further the Navy has sub- stantial holdings of paper stored at Federal records centers. We found indications that records had been held or stored for excessive periods because of (1) misclassification of records, (2) failure to destroy unneeded copies of documents, (3) an excessive prescribed retention period, and (4) noncompliance with disposal instructions. If the problems revealed in our review of contracts and vouchers are also applicable to the numerous other records in the Navy system or to the records of other components of the Department of Defense, correction of these problems might result in significant cost savings. Details of our findings follow.

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