The National Archives urges  government entities to comply with the applicable documents destruction procedures

Chaired by H.E. Dr. Abdulla El Reyes, NA’s Director General, the NA’s Destruction Committee discussed the requests received from some government entities on documents destruction in its first meeting in 2016. The meeting which the committee held at the NA headquarters, focused on the importance of protecting the historical documents and archival collections from random and unstudied destruction.

H.E. Dr. Abdulla El Reyes emphasized the importance of conducting destruction in accordance with the NA’s approved destruction procedures stated in Federal Law No. (7) of 2008 amended by Federal Law No. (1) of 2014 and the executive regulations thereof. He stressed that destruction procedures should not be violated as the acquisitions of the federal and local government entities’ archives are the NA’s responsibility, and their documents are a national trust.

In the meeting that was attended by H.E. Majid Al Mehairi, the Executive Director, and the committee members, the NA’s Destruction Committee underlined the importance of implementing the abovementioned law and the executive regulations thereof and that any document should not undergo destruction before the lapse of five years from date of its preparation. Moreover, no government entity is permitted to form an internal destruction committee since the Destruction Committee in the National Archives is the sole party that is authorized to determine whether to retain or destroy documents.