[Code of Federal Regulations]

[Title 32, Volume 1]

[Revised as of July 1, 2006]

From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access

[CITE: 32CFR32.53]



[Page 172-173]

 

                       TITLE 32--NATIONAL DEFENSE

 

              CHAPTER I--OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE

 

PART 32_ADMINISTRATIVE REQUIREMENTS FOR GRANTS AND AGREEMENTS WITH 

INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION, HOSPITALS, AND OTHER NON-PROFIT 

ORGANIZATIONS--Table of Contents

 

                    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 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.



[[Page 173]]



    (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 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