LETTER TO THE HONORABLE GEORGE BUSH FROM MAX HUGEL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84B00890R000600140028-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 21, 2005
• Sequence Number: 28
• Publication Date: April 8, 1981
• Content Type: LETTER

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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
WASHINGTON. D.C. 20505
8 MR 198A
The Honorable George Bush
President of the Senate
Washington, DC 20510
I --
31.1,1A Registr ,
Pursuant to the Privacy Act of 1974, Public Law 93-579,
transmitted herewith is a report of the proposed amendment to CIA
Record System 10.
The appropriate notice of amendment to the record system has
been sent to the Federal Register for promulgataion and public
comment.
Sincerely,
Max Hugel
Max Hugel
Deputy Director
for
Administration
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STAT IPD
Distribution:
ion:
Orig. - Adse. w/encl.
1 - DDA w/encl.
A - DDA Chrono w/o encl.
1 - OIS w/encl.
1 - OIS Chrono w/o encl.
1 - IPD Chrono w/o encl.
1 - IPD Subject (RLP) w/encl.
2 - IPD Corres.
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OIS 81-213/1
a2/
3 APR 1981
MEMORANDUM FOR: Deputy Director for Administration
FROM: Thomas H. White
Director of Information Services
SUBJECT: Records Reduction Plan
1. Forwarded herewith is the outline of a plan which it is believed
would result in the disposal of a significant amount of records now being
retained by this Agency. For brevity sake, I have not included much of
the details that must still be worked out in connection with the plan.
Additionally, I would rather not go too far until you have had a chance
to review the matter and contributed your suggestions to the program. Once
this has happened, we will then prepare a detailed step-by-step program
which can then be presented to senior Agency managers in any form you choose,
perhaps at an EXCOM meeting.
2. In addition to requesting the attached plan, you also requested
information on the NPIC film being stored at the Agency Archives and Records
Center. This collection of records amounts to approximately 23,000 cubic
feet, 17,000 of which are stored at NPIC and 6,000 of which are stored at the
Records Center. The collection is growing at the rate of 4,000 cubic feet
per year and this rate may double to 8,000 cubic feet per year by 1985. The
collection was reviewed in 1977 by the Agency and NARS, and NABS decided not
to appraise the film at that time. Thus, the collection is not scheduled and
no retention period has been set. I believe we can convince NABS to appraise
the collection within the near future, and hopefully they will determine much
of the material temporary. The only material being stored at the Records
Center from this collection is the film.
3. Perhaps we can discuss this plan at our "l-on-l" meeting on 9 April.
omas . i e
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REDUCTION OF INFORMATION HOLDINGS IN CIA
Because of the limited space for the physical storage of information
and the rapidly increasing amount of information to be stored, a program must
be implemented to ensure that only absolutely necessary material is retained.
Much effort has already been expended toward this objective, but it is dwarfed
by the amount of work left to be done. The program will be complicated by the
requirement that all series of records be scheduled before any material can be
destroyed. Such scheduling must be approved by the National Archives and
Records Service (NARS) which tends to view records more from an historical
perspective than from a physical perspective. Additional complications arise
because of the considerable manpower needs such a program will engender. Options
requiring less effort are available, but would result in a program much less than
satisfactory and cause considerable wheel spinning. In spite of these
ramifications, the fact remains that within a short period of time our records
storage facilities will be overcome unless a program is implemented soon to
alleviate the situation.
This plan has two major objectives and several secondary objectives.
The major objectives are to:
1. Devise an Agency-wide program that will result in the
disposition of significant quantities of information now being
retained, and
2. A long range program which would ensure that only
absolutely necessary information is retained in the future.
The secondary objectives are:
1. To enable us to comply with statutes and external regulations;
2. To ensure that the material retained is organized in its most
usable fashion;
3. To free up floor space both at the Archives and Records
Center and Headquarters;
4. To reduce the need for safe and other storage equipment; and
5. To standardize the process of maintenance, use, and disposition
of records Agency-wide.
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BACKGROUND
Storage space at the Agency Archives and Records Center is limited to
approximately 130,000 cubic feet, of which 90,000 is already occupied. Records
are being retired to the Records Center at a variable rate, but in 1980 deposits
exceeded destruction by about 6000 cubic feet. Based on annual reporting,
there are about 225,000 cubic feet of records stored in the Headquarters area
buildings.
The law which drives the disposition of records is the Records Disposal
Act of 1943. That Act requires that all Government agencies obtain prior
approval by the Archivist of the United States before destroying any records.
The Agency is subject to this Act, as confirmed by an OGC ruling in 1975. To
ensure compliance with the Act, GSA at that time had issued two regulatory
bulletins requiring all Government agencies to submit records control schedules
covering all their records to NARS by the end of 1976.
Based on the above, the Agency embarked upon a program to "schedule" its
records. Scheduling means identifying groups of related records, making
a determination as to whether the records are permanent or temporary, and if
temporary for what period of time they should be retained. These determinations,
in the form of records control schedules, are then submitted to NARS for approval.
Because the Agency had scheduled records only in a general sense, these new
demands required that much work be done in a short period of time. As a result,
the thoroughness of the scheduling effort and the accuracy of the determinations
varied among Agency components, and some less than satisfactory decisions on
retention periods were made. Because this was the first time the Agency and
NARS had made formal decisions authorizing destruction, many of the retention
periods decided upon were conservative and provided that records be retained
longer than absolutely necessary.
Nevertheless, the Agency, for the first time, had comprehensive records
control schedules covering the records of all components, and many records
were authorized for immediate destruction. It was decided that all records
holdings of the Agency would be reviewed, and records destroyed where authorized
by the new schedules. It was further decided to begin this review at the Agency
Archives and Records Center. One driving force for starting there was the wave
of investigations sweeping the Agency and the need to know that all records
pertaining to certain activities had been searched and to ensure that Records
Center deposits were better identified for future requirements. In addition,
it was necessary to make room for new deposits that would result from reviewing
the Headquarters holdings.
With that in mind, Agency component managers were required to send teams
of personnel to the Records Center to review all their records. Some 30 teams
were sent, varying in size from 2 members to 100, over the period 1977 to 1980.
As one result of these. reviews, about 25 percent of material stored at the
Records Center, has been destroyed.
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It should be noted also that during the past several years the Records
Management Division has worked with component managers in an attempt to
improve on the original scheduling effort. For example, over the past 2
years, RMD has assigned personnel to work with the records management officers
in some 20 offices to review records holdings, to develop or update records
schedules, and to recommend the destruction of records where possible. This
effort, although worthwhile, has not had a major impact on the Agency's records
holdings.
SUGGESTED PROGRAM
Update the Records Schedules
No records can be destroyed unless they have been scheduled and the
schedule approved by NARS. Because of the lack of uniformity in the records
schedules during the initial phase in 1976, the first thing that must be done
at this point is to update all records schedules covering material stored both
at the Records Center and at Headquarters. This will require that the records
holdings of all offices be surveyed. Newly established series of records must
be documented in the schedules, as well as interoffice transfers of records series.
Permanent vs. Temporary
During the survey all records must be closely examined to determine
whether they are permanent or temporary. Obviously, the more records that are
determined to be temporary the more we will be able to dispose of eventually.
This will require close coordination and well documented reasoning for effective
presentation to NARS.
Records Retention Period
With respect to records determined to be temporary, it will then be
necessary to closely examine the period set for retention of the records. This
decision will be determined both by NARS' requirements and Agency needs for
reference to the material. It is believed, however, that many retention
periods should be shortened, thus hastening destruction of the records.
Disposition of Records
Once the above has been completed, it will be necessary to closely monitor
all records schedules to ensure that temporary material is destroyed when it
has reached its maturity date.
PROBLEMS
The above outlined plan is a big one. To perform the surveys and make
the decisions will require the effort of large numbers of people. Office
managers to a large extent do not feel the need to place a high priority on
such an effort. On top of that they remember the Records Center review which
required them to send many of their people out of town for long periods of
time. Secondly, there are statutes and regulations that must be adhered to
in this process, and with NARS' historical bent it may be difficult to convince
them of the temporary nature of many records and the need to reduce retention
periods.
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There are a number of efforts to be embarked on which would fall short
of the large effort described above. These options include:
1. Notices, memoranda, etc., calling to senior managers' attention
the need to reduce the amount of information being retained.
2. Require that all records managers certify that all files
scheduled for retirement to the Records Center have been reviewed and
all extraneous material purged.
3. The above plan be implemented office by office rather than on
an Agency-wide basis.
While these are possible actions, none of them would achieve the desired
result. Notices would be ignored, certificates could not be verified on a
large scale, and component-by-component review would take years.
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