If these current episodes  (IRS email scandal, EPA disappearing texts)  have taught me anything, it is that the National Archives is not the steadfast archive that it was intended to be.  If the National Archive cannot collect the records, emails and other content from the Federal Government, then “What is their function?”

The whole purpose of digital records is the ease of moving them offsite into Government Clouds where they can be searchable and indexable. 

Why is there no penalty for improper care and maintenance for public records?  These are the records “of the people." The current administration has so corrupted every agency under their Czars, that all malfeasance is just swept away. And the one entity we thought was above the fray, The National Archive, that is designed to sweep records away into protective custody only received the sanitized record.

For the Administration that was so eager for electronic records; and, one that forced all doctor and hospitals to move to electronic and digital records, what sort of role model is this?

Federal employees need to be held to a higher standard.    How many times through the years has a Federal Judge ordered a corporate party to a trial to present records or be held to summary judgement.  If a Federal employee, much less the IRS,  make records disappear, (or even if they are just so incompetent?)  they should be put in jail, and fined daily the cost of the attorney fees for the public to receive an honest answer, until such time as the records are made to appear again.  Making records disappear should bankrupt that person.

The records management community should be speaking up to say “This will not stand! There are standards and procedures and laws and these people have failed to adhere to good practice at best and are criminal and incompetent at worst.

These people are making a mockery of our government.   If the National Archive cannot collect the records, and then move them out of the hands of the people who might be the perpetrators, then what is its purpose? If they cannot be the Archive “For the people” and “of the people” then they are just another tool to help whoever is the current administration.

If all the agencies are complicit with whoever is in power at the time, then how are the people served?


Hugh Smith
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