Record Disposal

Article 80 of Title 24 provides an overview of State Archives and Public Records in its Part 1, including a definition of ‘record’ under § 24-80-101 C.R.S.

(2) "Records" means all books, papers, maps, photographs, or other documentary materials, regardless of physical form or characteristics, made or received by any governmental agency in pursuance of law or in connection with the transaction of public business and preserved or appropriate for preservation by the 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 value of the official governmental data contained therein. 

Information meeting this definition must be maintained as a state record in accordance with State Archives' Adopted State Retention Schedule. Each division or unit within CDOR should have its own SA-194 that identifies all record series it has and applies the appropriate retention based on the adopted state schedule. This SA-194 serves as the division's retention schedule for its records. 

Whether a record is kept digitally (electronically) or physically (such as paper), if it is an official state record, this destruction process must be followed.

Chapter 1 of the Records Management Manual provides further guidance on identifying official records.

• The records must be authorized for destruction in accordance with the record retention requirements listed on the approved/signed SA-194.

• There are no active litigation holds, pending litigation, legal case, claim, audit, open records requests, or appeals that implicate the records targeted for destruction.

• The records are no longer required under any other legislation or rules, and all statutory and regulatory requirements are fulfilled.

• The records are of no further administrative or business use.

• The records have been approved for destruction by the section’s records custodian.

• The “Department of Revenue Certificate of Records Disposal” (DR 5041) has been completed and signed by the section’s records custodian and the director of records management (CDOR's record liaison officer).

Official state records must be handled according to the procedures in this records manual. This includes when determining if they are ready for disposition, and how that will be managed.

Disposition options include:

Shredding

DOR contracts with a NAID® AAA certified vendor for secure destruction services of paper documents. 

• The service provides secure locked bins for office areas, regular weekly or monthly destruction, and cross-cut shredding.

• The bins containing paper to be shredded should remain locked and be stored in an office area. 

• For security and safety reasons, the shred bins should not be routinely stored in a main hallway.

• If a large number of records need to be placed in a shred bin, the lid can be unlocked for a short time.

• Secure destruction services must be used to destroy all paper documents and paper records that contain or may contain sensitive data or personally identifiable information.

• Satellite offices must have an office cross-cut shredder available that is appropriate for the volume of documents to be shredded.

Transfer to State Archives

Some records have long-term value but are not required to be maintained permanently by DOR. In this instances, it can be appropriate to transfer the records to State Archives.

Contact DOR’s director of records management when records need to be transferred to State Archives. Electronic register forms must be submitted to State Archives and transfer arrangements need to be made.

• Physical records (paper, microfilm, microfiche, CD, DVD, cassette, portable drive, etc.) must be stored in approved archival record storage boxes. The approved archival record storage boxes are available from Colorado Correctional Industries/Juniper Valley Products - State Forms and Publication Center. The archival boxes are not listed on the CCI website. 

• State Archives has declared the following formats for long term preservation of electronic records: 

  • TIFF, PDF, MP4, MOV, EML, and MBOX. 

• Records (usually publications) that already appear at the Colorado State Publications Library do not need to be transferred to State Archives. The Colorado State Publications Library copies publications that are posted on Colorado State owned websites (including DOR’s) which are then added to the library’s database.

Once the requirements for destruction or disposition are met for physical records:  

• Paper records may be placed into the locked shred bins and staged for destruction or prepared for transfer if the disposition is transfer to another agency.

• To avoid accidental destruction of other records it is highly recommended a second individual verify that only the records (and date ranges) listed on the DR 5041 are staged for destruction.

• If microfilm, microfiche or digital media such as CD, DVD, cassette, portable drives, etc., are being destroyed, contact the DOR employee that administers the secure destruction purchase order for your building/location. 

• A special container will be received from the vendor and a separate purchase order may be necessary for this type of destruction.

• Microfilm, microfiche, and digital media such as CD, DVD, cassette, portable drives, etc. cannot be destroyed during the weekly/monthly secure paper destruction since it requires different destruction equipment.

• Send the pre-signed original DR 5041 to the director of records management after destruction is complete.

• The director of records management will complete the Colorado State Archives Certificate of Records Disposal form and attach the DR 5041.  The director of records management will submit the forms to State Archives.

The destruction of records must be documented since proof of destruction may be required in legal proceedings or in response to an open records request that began after the records were destroyed. The certificate of disposal along with a solid records management program provides the requisite proof that a record was destroyed in accordance with an adopted, controlled, and consistent records management process, thus eliminating or at least limiting the risk of exposure to discovery sanctions.

The disposition date can be determined using the following guidelines for physical and electronic records stored/segregated by year and dispositioned on an annual basis as recommended.

• Always assume the last record in the folder is dated December 31st for calendar year files and June 30th for fiscal year files.

• Add the retention period to the ending year. 

  • • • The formula is:  end date(mm/dd/yy) + retention period = disposition date(mm/dd/yy)

Example:  A folder has records from calendar year 2020.  The records have a retention period of “3 years and then destroy.”  

• The formula would be:  12/31/20 + 3 years = 12/31/23

• In this example, the entire 2020 folder can be shredded (physical records) or deleted (electronic records) on 12/31/23. 

  • If the first record in the 2020 folder was dated 01/01/20, then this record was basically held for 4 years. 

  • If the last record in the 2020 folder was dated 12/31/20, then this record was held for exactly 3 years.  

  • When dispositioning by year, as recommended, every record in the folder must have met the retention period.

Department: Revenue

Division:  Enter the name listed on the most recent approved SA-194.

Section:  Enter the name listed on the most recent approved SA-194.

SA-194 Archives #:  Enter the number written in the “Archives#” field from the most recent approved SA-194.

SA-194 Item #:  Enter the numeric item number (1, 2, 3, etc.) that corresponds to the record title on the SA-194.

Record Title and Inclusive Date (From/To):

• Enter the record classification/series/record name as it appears on the SA-194.

• The record title must be sufficiently defined to identify what record(s) were destroyed or transferred without questioning what records were intended to be destroyed or transferred.

• Record series that can have a list of items such as “Monthly Reports” (citation #2, 40.290, C) should have the types of monthly reports listed under the “Monthly Reports” record series unless there are too many types of monthly reports.

• Important: Just below the record name, enter the date range of the records being destroyed or transferred using the format mm/yyyy – mm/yyyy.

Date of Disposition:  The date paper records were destroyed; electronic records were deleted; or records transferred to another agency.

“Method of Destruction or Transferred To” and “Media Type” fields:

Media Type Method of Destruction

Paper Crosscut Shred

Microfilm/Microfiche Shred

DVD/CD Shred

Electronic File Deleted from (network or Google) drive

Portable Drive or Card Shearing or Crushing

Volume Disposed:  Estimate the amount of records destroyed/transferred.

• Volume of physical records destroyed or transferred is measured in cubic feet.

• Volume of electronic records destroyed or transferred is measured in kilobytes (KB), megabytes (MB), gigabytes (GB), or terabytes (TB) depending on the size of the files.

Record Custodian’s Name and Signature:

The records custodian assigned to the division/section must print and sign their name before destruction or transfer occurs.

Record Liaison Officer’s Name and Signature:

The director of records management must print and sign their name before destruction or transfer occurs.

Page x of y: 

For example, if there are three pages, the pages should be numbered as:      Page 1 of 3; Page 2 of 3; Page 3 of 3