Appendix B to Part 1136—Terms and Conditions for OAR Article II, “Records Retention and Access”

Unless a DoD Component substitutes alternate wording in paragraph A.3, a DoD Component's general terms and conditions must use the following wording for OAR Article II, as specified in §§ 1136.205 through 1136.230.

OAR Article II. Records Retention and Access. (DECEMBER 2014)

Section A. Records retention period. Except as provided in Sections B through D of this article:

1. You must keep records related to any real property and equipment acquired, in whole or in part, using Federal funds under the award for 3 years after final disposition of the property. For any item of exempt property with a current fair market value greater than $5,000, and for which final disposition was not a condition of the title vesting, you must keep whatever records you need for as long as necessary to ensure that you can deduct the Federal share if you later use the property in contributions for cost sharing or matching purposes under any Federal award.

2. You must keep records related to rate proposals for indirect or facilities and administrative costs, cost allocation plans, and supporting records such as indirect cost rate computations and any similar accounting computations of the rate at which a particular group of costs is chargeable (such as computer usage chargeback or composite fringe benefit rates) as follows:

a. If you are required to submit a proposal, plan, or other computations to your Federal cognizant agency for indirect costs, as the basis for negotiation of a rate, you must keep the submissions and all supporting records for 3 years from the date on which you were required to make the submissions.

b. If you are not required to submit a proposal, plan, or other computation as the basis for negotiation, you must keep the proposal, plan, other computation, and supporting records for 3 years from the end of the fiscal year or other accounting period covered by the proposal, plan, or other computation.

3. You must keep other financial records, supporting documents, statistical records, and other records pertinent to this award for a period of 3 years from the date you submit your final financial report under the award.

Section B. Extensions of retention period due to litigation, claim, or audit.

1. If any litigation, claim, or audit begins before the end of the 3-year retention period specified in Section A of this article and the final action related to the litigation, claim, or audit is not taken before the end of that 3-year period, you must retain all records related to this award that may be involved in the litigation, claim, or audit until all findings involving the records have been resolved and final action taken.

2. We may disallow costs and recover funds under this award based on an audit or other review of records you elected to retain beyond the retention period required by this article, even if the audit or review begins after the end of the 3-year retention period specified in Section A of this article. Thus, the “retention period,” as that term is used in OMB guidance in 2 CFR 200.344(a)(1), is extended, as described in 2 CFR 200.333(b), to include the entire period during which we and our authorized representatives continue to have access to those records under paragraph F.2 of this article.

Section C. Records for program income earned after the end of the performance period. In accordance with Section F of FMS Article VII, there are no requirements under this award applicable to program income you earn after the end of the period of performance and therefore no associated records retention requirements.

Section D. Records for joint or long-term use.

1. Joint use. To avoid duplicate recordkeeping for records that you and we both need to use on a continuous basis, we may ask you to make special arrangements with us, by mutual agreement, to make records available for joint and continuous use.

2. Long-term use. If we determine that some records will be needed longer than the 3-year period specified in Section A of this article, we may request that you either:

a. Retain the records for a longer period of time; or

b. Transfer the records to our custody for long-term retention.

3. Retention requirements for transferred records. For any records transferred to our custody, you are not subject to the records retention requirements in Section A of this article.

Section E. Methods for collecting, transmitting, and storing information.

1. You should, whenever practicable, collect, transmit, and store information related to this award in open and machine-readable formats rather than in closed formats or on paper. However, if you request it, we will:

a. Provide award related-information to you on paper; and

b. Accept award related-information from you on paper. In that case, we will not require more than an original and two copies.

2. When your original records are in an electronic form that cannot be altered, you do not need to create and retain paper copies of those records.

3. When your original records are on paper, you may substitute electronic versions produced through duplication or using other forms of electronic media, provided that:

a. You conduct periodic quality control reviews of the records;

b. You provide reasonable safeguards against alteration of the records; and

c. The records remain readable.

Section F. Access to records.

1. Scope of Federal Government access rights.

a. We as the awarding agency, the Federal Government Inspectors General, the Comptroller General of the United States, and any of our authorized representatives have the right of access to any documents, papers, or other records you have that are pertinent to this award, in order to make audits, examinations, excerpts, and transcripts.

b. This right also includes timely and reasonable access to your personnel for the purposes of interview and discussion related to the records.

c. As described in OMB guidance at 2 CFR 200.336(b), the access to records described in this section will include access to the true name of a victim of a crime only under extraordinary and rare circumstances.

i. You are required to provide that access only in response to a court order or subpoena pursuant to a bona fide confidential investigation, or in response to a request duly authorized by the head of the DoD Component or his or her designee; and

ii. You must take appropriate steps to protect this sensitive information.

2. Duration of Federal Government access rights. We have the access rights described in paragraph F.1 of this section as long as you retain the records.

3. Public access.

a. You must comply with requirements to protect information that Federal statute, Executive order, or regulation requires to be protected (e.g., personally identifiable or export controlled information), to include both information generated under this award and information provided to you and identified as being subject to protection. Other than those limitations on dissemination of information, we place no restrictions on you that limit public access to your records pertinent to this award.

b. We do not place any requirements on you to permit public access to your records separate from any Federal, State, local, or tribal statute that may require you to do so.

c. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA, 5 U.S.C. 552) does not apply to records in your possession but records you provide to us generally will be subject to FOIA, with the applicable exemptions.