Federal Records:

Removal of Agency Documents by Senior Officials Upon Leaving Office

GGD-89-91: Published: Jul 25, 1989. Publicly Released: Sep 12, 1989.

Additional Materials:

Contact:

Office of Public Affairs
(202) 512-4800
youngc1@gao.gov

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO surveyed 13 cabinet-level departments to assess the extent to which they governed senior officials' removal of federal records upon leaving office.

GAO found that: (1) various federal and criminal laws applied to officials' removal of materials, depending on their qualification as records under each law's or the individual agency's definition; (2) those laws generally did not apply to the removal of nonrecord materials, including extra copies of records or personal papers; (3) 12 of the 13 agencies surveyed issued removal regulations, with 8 requiring review of documents before removal; (4) none of the agencies had a procedure for documenting the relinquishment of government ownership of removed materials; (5) each of the 13 agencies made officials aware of record removal regulations and the penalties for violating those regulations; (6) of the 24 top officials in 12 agencies, 5 planned to remove only nonrecord materials, 12 did not intend to remove any materials, and 7 had not expressed their plans; (7) none of the 12 agencies allowed officials to remove records; and (8) 11 agencies permitted officials to remove some copies of unclassified records, while 4 would allow officials to remove copies of some withheld records if the officials requested them under the Freedom of Information Act.

Feb 11, 2021

Oct 8, 2020

Jul 16, 2020

Mar 30, 2020

Mar 16, 2020

Dec 16, 2019

Oct 17, 2019

Aug 10, 2018

Jun 25, 2018

Mar 13, 2018

Looking for more? Browse all our products here