Electronic archiving and legal context
The legal basis regarding the electronic archiving modality on Romanian territory
- Law no.135/2007 regarding the archiving of documents in electronic format, republished in 2014;
- Law no. 16/1996 of the National Archives, republished in 2014;
- Instructions of the National Archives regarding the archiving activity within the elaborators and keepers of documents, approved by the management of the National Archives by the Order no. 217/1996.
Law 135/2007 establishes the legal regime applicable to the elaboration, conservation, consultation and use of the electronic format documents archived or that will be archived in an electronic archive. At the same time Law 135/2007 provides that the archival processing of the electronic format documents is carried out complying with the provisions of Law 16/1996.
As a result, even if a company decides to keep the electronic format documents in an electronic archive constituted in compliance with Law 135/2007, it must also follow the provisions of Law 16/1996 regarding the obligations of the elaborators and holders of documents related to the documents record, selection and keeping.
The storage terms of the documents in the archive are established:
- Primarily, depending on the existing specific legal regulations e.g.: retention term of 10 years for:
- the supporting documents which are the basis for the registration in the accounting of the management documents and transfer penalties (Regulation no.15/2009 regarding the collection and payment operations performed through the accounts of the private pension fund),
- invoices and other supporting documents which lay at the basis of the registrations in the accounting (art. 25 of the Law on Accounting no. 82/1991, with further amendments and completions),
- Secondly depending in the practical importance of the respective documents for the company's activity.
This means that each company should:
- have an archiving classified list approved by the National Archives, drawn up under the form of a table, where the categories of documents groups by issues and retention terms are filled in, according to their relative work departments (according to the company's organizational chart);
- to archive annually the received documents, those elaborated for internal use as well as those distributed outside the company, following the grouping criteria established by the archiving classified list, elaborating inventories by retentions terms and receipt protocols according to Law no. 16/1996;
- to select the documents reaching their retention term (decision for extension or final removal from the archive) by a protocol of the Selection Committee whose members are assigned by the company's management, protocol that must be approved by the National Archives.
TRANSFOND offers its clients electronic archiving services according to Law 135/2007, including the alignment to the requirements of Law 16/1996 and the elaboration, by request, of the inventories and receipt protocols of the documents in the electronic archive.
