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B-203125 1 (1981-05-29)

handle is hein.gao/gaobactwz0001 and id is 1 raw text is: r - GAO United States General Accounting Office Washington, DC 20548 Offi'e of General Counsel In Reply Refer to: B-203125 May 29, 1981 Ms. Judith I. Rbbey Executive Vice President Devlin Associates, Inc. 1150 First Avenue, Suite 795 King of Prussia, PA 19406 Dear Ms. Robey: This refers to your letter dated April 28, 1981, requesting additional information on this Office's record retention requirements. Your letter indicates that you have already consulted the Guide to Record Retention Requirements revised as of January 1st of each year by the Office of the Federal Register. The Guide is the only available compilation or listing of the record retention requirements of this Office. This listing sets forth who is required to keep records, the records they are required to keep, and how long they are required to keep them. It should be noted here that even where the law does not specifically set forth the retention period of the records involved, we have found that retention for a period of 3 years following final payment under a contract or agreement for financial assistance generally is sufficient to meet our needs. They also cite the provisions of law requiring certain members of the public to keep such records. Since the information published in the Guide is merely a digest of the laws' requirements, it would be beneficial to consult the laws cited in the digests for further clarification. As you will note, the laws generally involve Government contractors or recipients of some form of Federal assistance (i.e., grant, loan, or loan guarantee) who are required to maintain certain records and provide this Office access to those records in order to perform authorized audits, reviews or evaluations. However, until the focus of a specific audit is decided upon, it is difficult to say in advance precisely what records will be necessary to perform our work. Further, the nature and sophistication of the accounting system involved will also have to be considered. Thus, further explanation of the laws' and thus, our requirements prior to an audit is virtually impossible. It should be pointed out, however, that the extent of our audit and access to records authority vis a vis persons holding negotiated Govern- ment contracts has been, and presently is, the subject of litigation. In Hewlett-Packard Co. v. United States, 385 F. 2d 1013 (9th Cir., 1967) cert. den. 390 U.S. 988, the court held that we were entitled to access J/6~ ~~ ~ iA 67 7 11 A / 6el-

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