The documents providing guidance to commonwealth employees on records management have been updated. Manual 210.1, The Commonwealth's Employee Records Management Manual, covers organizing, maintaining, and disposing of records used in day-to-day operations. Manual 210.9, The Commonwealth's General Records Retention and Disposition Schedule, provides retention period requirements and disposal authorization. Procedures for the transfer of inactive agency records from the State Records Center to an alternative records storage facility are now available. Please e-mail records actions to PHMC at RA-staterecordsmgmt@pa.gov. The Office of Administration accepts requests for public employee information via e-mail . The Office of Open Records periodically issues advisory opinions of how it interprets and applies PA’s open records law.

Right–To-Know Request Form Download, complete and fax this form to 717.346.6774 to ask for OA-related public information. State Contracts Search the Treasury Department’s e-Library for contracts based on your specific criteria. Procurement Information Visit the Department of General Services’ e-Marketplace for solicitations, awards, sole source contracts and more. Records Management Get up-to-date information online, geared toward agency records coordinators. General Schedule Find out which records are common to most agencies, how long they should be kept and when it’s ok to dispose of them. Employee Records Management Manual Follow Pennsylvania’s guidelines to ensure proper, conscientious, and continuous stewardship of the commonwealth’s records. Pennsylvania Manual Read profiles of the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of state government including information about their powers, functions, and duties.

Do you need to create, amend or rescind a management directive, manual or administrative circular?  A great place to start is by reviewing Management Directive 210.1: Directives Management System.  Please note: This process does not include Executive Orders.  Executive Orders are defined as issuances, but follow a different development and review process.  For further details of this process, please contact the Governor’s Office of Administration (OA), Office of Enterprise Records Management (OERM), Directives Management via email at ra-eb-dms@pa.gov.   If so, you’ll need to follow these steps: Your agency’s directives coordinator should contact OERM via email at ra-eb-dms@pa.gov to initiate a proposed/amended issuance or rescission request.  If you’re not sure who your agency’s directives coordinator is, please refer to Enclosure 3 of Management Directive 210.1: Directives Management System.  OERM emails the existing existing issuance, if there is one, to your agency's directives coordinator and/or point of contact as a Microsoft Word document. Your agency should amend the existing issuance using track changes. Your agency's directives coordinator and/or point of contact must return the issuance, showing the tracked changes, back to OERM via email at ra-eb-dms@pa.gov. OERM prepares the final draft by reviewing proposed issuances for authority, accuracy, impact, understanding, and completeness in the context of other agencies, other systems, and existing programs and procedures, and returns, to agency directives coordinator and/or point of contact. Your agency's directives coordinator and/or point of contact must ensure adequate review and secure appropriate agency signatures from program, policy, legal and agency head and return the approved issuance, along with the routing sheet, to OERM via email at ra-eb-dms@pa.gov. If an issuance intersects with other agencies’ areas of authority, those agencies will be asked to review for approval. Once all agency approvals are secured, OERM sends the issuance for final review for commonwealth impact to OA, Office for Human Resources Management for human resource and labor relations impact; OA, Office for Information Technology for impact to IT Resources; and to OGC for legal impact.   Once all commonwealth concerns have been addressed, a hard copy is sent to the agency’s directives coordinator and/or to the point of contact for signature by the agency head. Upon its return to OERM signed, OERM will submit documentation to the Legislative Reference Bureau for publication in the Pennsylvania Bulletin and the Pennsylvania Code and publish the issuance on OA’s website. The process can stretch over several months or be completed in weeks, depending on the complexity of the changes and coordination required.

Manual 210.9, The Commonwealth’s General Records Retention and Disposition Schedule specifies how long to keep common records, identifies records that have permanent value and authorizes the disposal of nonpermanent records at specified times. This schedule is mandated for organizations subject to the Administrative Code of 1929, agencies under the Governor’s jurisdiction and entities that use the State Records Center. For more details, go to Manual 210.9, The Commonwealth’s General Records Retention and Disposition Schedule. Administrative Records Press/Public Relations Legislative Legal Grants Training Information Systems Records/Forms Management Security/Safety Facilities Management Budget Finance Human Resources  Employee Benefits and Services