[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: 32CFR34.42]



[Page 219-220]

 

                       TITLE 32--NATIONAL DEFENSE

 

              CHAPTER I--OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE

 

PART 34_ADMINISTRATIVE REQUIREMENTS FOR GRANTS AND AGREEMENTS WITH 

FOR-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS--Table of Contents

 

                    Subpart B_Post-award Requirements

 

Sec.  34.42  Retention and access requirements for records.



    (a) This section sets forth requirements for records retention and 

access to records for awards to 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 Sec.  

34.42(g).

    (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.



[[Page 220]]



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 proposals, cost allocation plans, and other cost 

accounting documents (such as documents related to computer usage 

chargeback rates), along with their supporting records, shall be 

retained for a 3-year period, as follows:

    (1) If a recipient is required to submit an indirect-cost proposal, 

cost allocation plan, or other computation to the cognizant Federal 

agency, for purposes of negotiating an indirect cost rate or other 

rates, the 3-year retention period starts on the date of the submission. 

This retention requirement also applies to subrecipients submitting 

similar documents for negotiation to the recipient.

    (2) If the recipient or the subrecipient is not required to submit 

the documents or supporting records for negotiating an indirect cost 

rate or other rates, the 3-year retention period for the documents and 

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 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