Municipalities often make mistakes while preparing documents for archiving. They face difficulties due to ignorance of classifier codes, incorrectly formed case nomenclature, improper document flow, etc.
In order to inform municipal specialists about legislative changes regulating the processes of record keeping and archival affairs, clarify the basic principles and peculiarities of case nomenclature formation, U-LEAD jointly with the specialists of the State Archives of Mykolaiv Oblast held an information session at the local Regional Office, attended by over 80 participants from more than 40 municipalities of the oblast.
"Documents certified incorrectly, not in accordance with the Standard Instruction on Record Keeping in Ministries, Other Central and Local Executive Authorities, approved by the Cabinet of Ministers Resolution of 17 January 2018 No. 55, or uncertified document copies are inadmissible evidence of the case's factual circumstances and grounds for court cancellation (Supreme Court ruling of 08.05.2019 in case No. 160/7887/18)," explained Nataliia Balanyuk, Decentralisation and Local Self-Government Adviser of the U-LEAD with Europe Regional Office in Mykolaiv Oblast.
The expert recalled that in April 2022, there were amendments to the Rules for the Organisation of Record Keeping and Document Archiving in State Authorities, Local Self-Government Bodies, Enterprises, Institutions and Organisations, so the relevant services had to align their record keeping instructions with this order. The instruction regulates a unified procedure for document management in an institution, the document form, documentary support based on the modern technology and automated document management technologies.
At the start of the event, Nataliia Kolesnyk, Head of the State Archives of Mykolaiv Oblast, spoke about the changes to the network and structure of local state archival institutions due to administrative reforms in the districts. Hanna Khozyasheva, Head of the Department of NAF Formation and Record Keeping at the State Archives of Mykolaiv Oblast, and Zoryana Ivanova and Viktoriia Zamkina, Chief Specialists of the Department, were speakers at the information session.
During the conversation, the State Archives experts responded to various questions and suggested possible action algorithms for local clerks and archivists. They noted that a local self-government body generates significant volumes of all kinds of documents in its activities. These include session resolutions, organisational and administrative documents, personnel records, protocols, letters, etc. In order to structure them, a case nomenclature is formed.
A case nomenclature is a systematic list of case titles, mandatory for each legal entity, generated in record keeping, with an indication of the case retention period, so the ordering of document retention starts with drawing a case nomenclature.
Local self-governments and their executive bodies develop nomenclature annually - no later than 15 November of the current year for the following one. It comes into effect on 1 January of the following year. The case nomenclature facilitates document transfer to the archive. In case of discrepancy, the archive can reject the documents for storage and return them for revision.
The speakers also explained the powers and work organisation of the expert commission, which is the institution's permanent body. It is responsible for organising and conducting documents appraisal, considering issues related to archival documents, refuting false personal data contained in such documents, etc.