[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 32, Volume 1]
[Revised as of July 1, 2003]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 32CFR32.53]

[Page 152-154]
 
                       TITLE 32--NATIONAL DEFENSE
 
              CHAPTER I--OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
 
                   Subpart C--Post-Award Requirements
 
Sec. 32.53  Retention and access requirements for records.

    (a) This section sets forth requirements for record retention and 
access

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to records for awards to recipients. DoD Components shall not impose any 
other record retention or access requirements upon recipients.
    (b) Financial records, supporting documents, statistical records, 
and all other records pertinent to an award shall be retained for a 
period of three years from the date of submission of the final 
expenditure report. The only exceptions are the following:
    (1) If any litigation, claim, or audit is started before the 
expiration of the 3-year period, the records shall be retained until all 
litigation, claims or audit findings involving the records have been 
resolved and final action taken.
    (2) Records for real property and equipment acquired with Federal 
funds shall be retained for 3 years after final disposition.
    (3) When records are transferred to or maintained by the DoD 
Component that made the award, the 3-year retention requirement is not 
applicable to the recipient.
    (4) Indirect cost rate proposals, cost allocations plans, and 
related records, for which retention requirements are specified in 
paragraph (g) of this section.
    (c) Copies of original records may be substituted for the original 
records if authorized by the grants officer.
    (d) The grants officer shall request that recipients transfer 
certain records to DoD Component custody when he or she determines that 
the records possess long term retention value. However, in order to 
avoid duplicate recordkeeping, a grants officer may make arrangements 
for recipients to retain any records that are continuously needed for 
joint use.
    (e) DoD Components, the Inspector General, Comptroller General of 
the United States, or any of their duly authorized representatives, have 
the right of timely and unrestricted access to any books, documents, 
papers, or other records of recipients that are pertinent to the awards, 
in order to make audits, examinations, excerpts, transcripts and copies 
of such documents. This right also includes timely and reasonable access 
to a recipient's personnel for the purpose of interview and discussion 
related to such documents. The rights of access in this paragraph are 
not limited to the required retention period, but shall last as long as 
records are retained.
    (f) Unless required by statute, no DoD Component shall place 
restrictions on recipients that limit public access to the records of 
recipients that are pertinent to an award, except when the DoD Component 
can demonstrate that such records shall be kept confidential and would 
have been exempted from disclosure pursuant to the Freedom of 
Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552) if the records had belonged to the DoD 
Component making the award.
    (g) Indirect cost rate proposals, cost allocations plans, etc. 
Paragraphs (g)(1) and (g)(2) of this section apply to the following 
types of documents, and their supporting records: indirect cost rate 
computations or proposals, cost allocation plans, and any similar 
accounting computations of the rate at which a particular group of costs 
is chargeable (such as computer usage chargeback rates or composite 
fringe benefit rates).
    (1) If submitted for negotiation. If the recipient submits an 
indirect-cost proposal, plan, or other computation to the Federal agency 
responsible for negotiating the recipient's indirect cost rate, as the 
basis for negotiation of the rate, or the subrecipient submits such a 
proposal, plan, or computation to the recipient, then the 3-year 
retention period for its supporting records starts on the date of such 
submission.
    (2) If not submitted for negotiation. If the recipient is not 
required to submit to the cognizant Federal agency or the subrecipient 
is not required to submit to the recipient the proposal, plan, or other 
computation for negotiation purposes, then the 3-year retention period 
for the proposal, plan, or other computation and its supporting records 
starts at the end of the fiscal year (or other accounting period) 
covered by the proposal, plan, or other computation.
    (h) If the information described in this section is maintained on a 
computer, recipients shall retain the computer data on a reliable medium 
for the time periods prescribed. Recipients may transfer computer data 
in machine readable form from one reliable

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computer medium to another. Recipients' computer data retention and 
transfer procedures shall maintain the integrity, reliability, and 
security of the original computer data. Recipients shall also maintain 
an audit trail describing the data transfer. For the record retention 
time periods prescribed in this section, recipients shall not destroy, 
discard, delete, or write over such computer data.

                       Termination and Enforcement