SgtB. I appreciate your comments more than you will ever know.
During the three years that I was working to help clean up the system at JAG I became very sensitive to the fact that as an organization, DND has done just about all they can to undermine the record keeping system by making records management specialists and clerks in general among the first to be down sized.
On top of that, the increase of paperwork that is flowing through he headquarters and down to the units has risen astronomically. It is no wonder CRs and other file holders can't keep up. Its truly a leadership problem and not a clerk problem. I know that our clerks at JAG would never have had the time to do the job which is why we hired four people for a year to clean up old files and do dispositions. Our leadership had decided that we had hit a crisis point and that the issue required extraordinary measures.
For DAA. The space issue is not only confined to orderly rooms but is one at the Shared Support Services sites in Ottawa and also at LAC's Federal Records Centres. I visited those across the country and they are simply overwhelmed by the mass of documents which we (and other departments) do transfer for storage. One of the big problems is that just about everything goes into the files including large quantities of transitory records as well as duplicate records. Effectively if files were kept to just a single copy of each corporate record from the start, the files would be a small fraction of their former selves and more easily managed. Most file volumes bear a start date and with minimal use of the DSCDS retention/disposition instructions it actually becomes fairly easy to determine when a given volume should be destroyed or transferred to SSS or an FRC.
For MCG. Unfortunately when I left three years ago, there was no methodology that allowed for exclusive digital storage. We created a cross country RDIMS system for JAG based on a single registry in Ottawa and all electronic corporate records required a paper copy to be kept in a physical file. In large part this was due to the fact that LAC had not determined on a standard for electronic record keeping or transfer. I honestly hope that does become a solution but quite frankly I despair of LAC ever reaching consensus with the numerous departments and their vested interests. As an example of failing to conform to standards just look to RDIMS which has been a DND standard for many years but has still not been universally adopted or implemented. An example of the problem with the disposition of electronic records look to the Frigate construction program. Many of their electronic records sit on an FRC shelf in Halifax in large tape reels with the tape disintegrating and no computer that can read them.
Finally. I have received further information this time from my contact within SSS who has confirmed that the DSCDS amendments which we were championing vis a vis the 6500 Legal Services block have been implemented and accordingly the new primary 6525 Legal Services - Courts and Tribunals - Disciplinary Matters is in effect and should be reflected on the DWAN's DSCDS site. I have a bilingual Word version of the 6500 block and can make it available to anyone interested (having troubles converting it into a pdf at the moment). Effectively 6525 is the new primary for amongst other things, summary trial corporate records.
