Disposal - Chapter 3

Hi Team,

Ok now that we have sentenced the records from chapter 2, we can now identify which of these records are ready for destruction, retention or transfer.  

Chapter 3

Any record that is ready for destruction (i.e. the retention period has lapsed) must be recorded on an “intention to destroy records report form”.  Do not include Permanent files on the ITDRR or records that are not ready for destruction.  This is a big NO NO!!  Believe it or not I have seen P records listed on ITDRR as well as records ready for destruction in 2040!

Once you have correctly filled in the form it is then sent to State Records to seek approval for the destruction of these records.  No records are allowed to be destroyed prior to SRSA approval.  Approval from SRSA may take awhile (up to 8 weeks) so please take this into consideration when sending in your list.  

Fig 1 Example 1 of ITDRR

There are a few images in this post which show examples of what NOT TO do when filling in the ITDRR.  You’ll notice that in example #1 there are a few incorrect listings.  NAP items do not need to be listed on the ITDRR, not to mention that “correspondence” isn’t a detailed description of the record.  Did you notice that this was only page 2 of 230 pages!  This had to be sent back to the agency to correctly complete before SRSA could approve these records for destruction.  Example #2 isn’t much better.  What do you notice is wrong with example 2 form?

Fig 2 Example 2 of ITDRR

Here is a checklist to follow so that you get your ITDRR approved first time every time.  That list is as follows;

• Fill the form in electronically rather than hand written.  It can be difficult for SRSA to decipher your writing!
• Lodge your form electronically – email the agency spreadsheet to the SRSA Government Enquiries email address: srsaRecordsManagement@sa.gov.au 
• Sentence the records correctly in the first instance, this means that you will have to look inside the file itself rather than just relying on the file name, often they can be two different things
• Ensure that the form is signed and dated, if it’s not, it can’t be processed
• Where the form asks you whether you have checked the records against different versions of the GDS, bold and/or highlight  your answer
• What order to fill in the list? The list is to be filled in using numerical order of the sentencing action (item number eg. 3.3.2 then followed by 6.53.1 ) in column four of the list,  this means that SRSA doesn’t have to flip backwards and forwards through the GDS to find records, it flows in a logical order.
• Always include the DOB (date of birth) on any personal / personnel / health / medical / minor records
• Enter the version number of the GDS that you used to sentence the records, if it is not the current version the results of your sentencing and SRSA could differ resulting in your form being returned to be corrected
• Always enter the month and year for destruction action as per YYYY/MM.
• Once you have done all of this, we suggest that you
• Go back and check your work – 10 minutes doing this can save you hours of re-doing the whole thing!
• Also consider, if you plan on sending in a ITDRR list that is more than 10 pages it might take a longer time for SRSA to review the content.

Happy "sentencing" :)

Melisa Z-G