ADS Chapter 158: Document Retention and Collection Orders

This chapter outlines the procedures for issuing and implementing document retention and collection orders. The Assistant General Counsel for Litigation and Enforcement (GC/LE) and the Assistant General Counsel for Ethics and Administration (GC/EA) are responsible for issuing and overseeing the implementation of document retention and collection orders. The Bureau for Management, Office of Management Services, Information and Records Division (M/MS/IRD) and the Bureau for Management, Office of the Chief Information Officer, Chief Information Security Officer (M/CIO/CISO) facilitate the implementation of such orders, which may involve suspending document disposition procedures, preserving hard copy and electronic materials, and collecting and providing such materials to GC. Document retention orders require the preservation of certain hard copy and/or electronic materials due to litigation, audit, investigative, or other needs. Document collection orders require the collection and provision of such materials to the Office of the General Counsel (GC). The issuance of document retention and collection orders is authorized solely by GC, which may do so when it is in the best interest of the Agency. To issue a document retention and/or collection order, GC sends written notice to M/MS/IRD and M/CIO/CISO and to relevant B/IOs, Missions, and USAID staff. The order should provide a brief summary of the circumstances necessitating it and a description of the materials subject to retention and/or collection. The order should indicate the types of materials that must be preserved or collected, applicable date restrictions, applicable subject matter restrictions, and applicable custodian restrictions. M/MS/IRD and M/CIO/CISO work with GC to facilitate the implementation of document retention and collection orders. They provide information regarding regularly scheduled disposition procedures that could affect materials subject to an order and suspend such procedures if GC determines it is appropriate. Relevant B/IOs, Missions, and USAID staff also work with GC, M/MS/IRD, and M/CIO/CISO to preserve and collect materials in their possession pursuant to any document retention and/or collection orders issued. Individuals who have received a document retention and/or collection order may be required to provide written certification to GC that they have reviewed and understood its contents and will comply with its terms. GC may modify the terms of retention and collection orders once they have been issued and must remove orders when they are no longer necessary. USAID may be subject to judicial or other sanctions if it fails to comply with document retention and collection orders. Individual staff members may also face penalties under USAID's Table of Offenses and Penalties for insubordination as well as civil and criminal legal penalties. The terms and definitions listed below have been included in the ADS Glossary. Disposition refers to the transfer, retirement, and/or disposal of records or non-record material. Non-record refers to U.S. Government-owned informational materials excluded from legal definition of records, including extra copies of documents kept only for convenience or reference. Records refer to all books, papers, maps, photographs, machine-readable materials, or other documentary materials made or received by an agency or its legitimate successor as evidence of the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, operations, or other activities of the Government or because of the informational value of data in them.