Comptroller Issues New Policy on Digital Record Keeping
The COVID-19 emergency made urgent what had already been increasingly clear: the future will be digital, not paper-based. Electronic records, already the norm across many industries, are now essential given new workplace realities throughout the Commonwealth. As our partners throughout state government innovate and adapt to a changed landscape, the Office of the Comptroller has provided for departments to transition to increasingly digital recordkeeping through a new Record Copies of Fiscal Documents Policy.
The policy deals with when – and how – it is permissible to keep only digital copies of records concerning fiscal activities. It describes when departments of the Commonwealth may maintain a department solely in electronic form, if:
- There is no statute, regulation, or internal department policy that requires these documents to be kept in paper form;
- The department has satisfied the requirements in the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s Electronic Records Management Guidelines for electronically creating, or scanning and storing, records; and
- The department complies with the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s Records Retention Schedule and all applicable bulletins including, but not limited to, SPR 1-02, “Security and Custody of Records.”
The policy also includes guidance to departments’ internal counsels on what to consider before digitizing and destroying paper versions of Record Copies.
The Office of the Comptroller thanks our partners throughout the state for their attention to this policy. We are eager to continue working with them to create solutions as we all transition to a mobile, digital work environment.
