GOVERNOR Arnold I. Palacios on Friday signed into law a measure that aims to “strengthen” the CNMI Archives at Northern Marianas College.
Authored by Senate Vice President Donald Manglona, Senate Bill 23-13 is now Public Law 23-24.
It will “enhance the duties and responsibilities of the CNMI Archives by creating a framework of policies and procedures for the maintenance, disposition and preservation of Commonwealth government documents and records, to properly preserve such documents.”
According to the new law, government branches, departments, agencies and offices “have not fully observed NMC’s critically important mandate of maintaining and preserving” CNMI government documents and records for posterity.
Fully functioning archives “create opportunities for academic research, which can be used as justification for public policies that ultimately improve the quality of life of our Commonwealth residents, and serves as a repository for critically important documents, publications, and materials pertaining to the Commonwealth government for the benefit of posterity.”
The new law requires the heads of government agencies to, among other things, “make and maintain records containing adequate and proper documentation of the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, and essential transactions of the agency designed to furnish information to protect the legal and financial rights of the government and of persons affected by the agencies’ activities.”
The new law also requires agency heads to submit to the CNMI archivist, in accordance with the standard established by the archivist, schedules proposing the length of time each government record warrants retention for administrative, legal, or fiscal purposes after it has been received by the agency.
In addition, the head of each agency is required to submit lists of government records in their custody that are not needed in the transaction for current business and that do not have sufficient administrative, legal, or fiscal value to warrant their further keeping, for disposal in conformity with the requirements of the law.