Auditors: NASA needs e-mail lessons.

• Author: Swartz, Nikki
• Position: UP FRONT - United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration

According to a recent inspector general report, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) employees are not properly managing their official e-mail records due to a lack of knowledge and training.

Auditors said that NASA's records management policies do not explain how to determine what e-mail messages should be retained and cite outdated rules and schedules. The agency has updated its guidance, FCW.com reported, but as The Information Management Journal went to press, it had not been finalized.

The oversight office also found that 45 percent of NASA officials at the agency did not know that they had to archive such messages and also did not know how to do it. Auditors cited a lack of agencywide training as the cause.

The report found that NASA records officers also didn't perform regular records management reviews to ensure compliance with the National Archives and Records Administration Act of 1984. The act requires agencies to develop and implement a program to manage all of their electronic media records.

"NASA's noncompliance with NARA regulations and NASA's requirements for records management increases the risk of permanent loss of institutional...