1200 Maintaining Compliance with the Georgia Open Records Act
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Department of Human Services Policy and Manual Management System |
Index: |
POL 1200 |
Revised: |
01/08/2024 |
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Next Review: |
01/08/2026 |
Policy
The Open Records Act (ORA), enacted by the Georgia General Assembly, places an emphasis on the importance of open government. In instituting the ORA, the General Assembly declared that in order to ensure transparency in government it is essential that the public have unencumbered access to public records. It is with this same intent that the Department of Human Services (DHS) introduces this policy to insure compliance with the ORA.
The policy of DHS is to comply with the provisions of the ORA when responding to requests for documentation maintained by the Department. This policy requires timely response to requests for information and mandates strict compliance with a process that facilitates the public inspection all public records, except those which are specifically exempted from disclosure.
Definitions
- Public record
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all documents, papers, letters, maps, books, tapes, photographs, computer based or generated information, data, data fields, or similar material prepared and maintained or received by an agency or by a private person or entity in the performance of a service or function for or on behalf of an agency or when such documents have been transferred to a private person or entity by an agency for storage or future governmental use.
Responsibilities
The Open Records Officer designated by the Commissioner of the Department of Human Services is responsible for fulfillment of records requests and issuing responses received pursuant to the Open Records Act. DHS employees that receive an open record request should direct the requestor to the open records officer.