Section 38-2-12

Authority of commissioner to destroy certain records, etc.

(a) The Commissioner of the State Department of Human Resources shall have the authority to destroy or cause to be destroyed, in his discretion:

(1) RECORDS OF CERTAIN AGENCIES. - All records of the Alabama Relief Administration, the Alabama Transient Bureau and Surplus Commodity Distribution presently in the custody and under the control of the State Department of Human Resources.

(2) OBSOLETE COUNTY CASE RECORD MATERIAL. - Obsolete case record material in the custody of county departments, subject to the following conditions:

a. Case record material concerning old age pensions, aid to the blind, aid to the permanently and totally disabled, aid to dependent children and temporary aid shall be preserved for a period of at least five years from and after the date of the last contact with the county department by the subject of such material.

b. All fiscal audits for the period in which the cases covered by such case record material were receiving assistance or service shall have been completed; provided however, that nothing in this section shall prohibit the commissioner from exercising the authority to destroy case record material which has been photographically reproduced in accordance with Section 38-2-11.

(3) CANCELLED COUNTY CHECKS. - All cancelled checks issued by and filed in county departments from the inception of the public welfare program in 1935 to October 1, 1951; provided, that records showing the payments evidenced by such checks must be preserved in either the state department or the county department.

(4) CERTAIN FILES. - Statements contained in case record files made by recipients and their relatives as required by Act No. 694 of the 1951 Legislature of Alabama.

(5) RECORDS RELATING TO SURPLUS COMMODITIES. - Case record material concerning the distribution of surplus commodities received from the United States Department of Agriculture and related records and reports concerning the handling and distribution of such surplus commodities; provided that such case record material and records and reports shall be preserved for a period of at least three years from and after the close of the state fiscal year to which they pertain.

(b) In effecting the destruction of records permitted by this section, the commissioner shall establish reasonable rules and regulations insuring that the confidentiality of records shall be preserved during the process of destruction.

(Acts 1951, No. 51, p. 265; Acts 1961, No. 91, p. 105, §§2-6; Acts 1979, No. 79-710, p. 1263.)