Administrative file of a public official: what are the management rules?
Verified 01 January 2023 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)
Your personal file contains all the documents concerning your administrative situation and your career development. It can be managed electronically.
Your individual file gathers all documents concerning your administrative situation.
It shall include in particular documents relating to the following information:
- Your marital status
- Your family situation
- Your diplomas
- Your career: appointment, promotion, internal promotion, change of statutory position (secondment, parental leave, etc.)
- Your professional assessments
- The training you have taken
- Your absences: leave orders (maternity, paternity, sickness, etc.)
These documents shall be recorded, numbered and filed without discontinuity.
Your file must not contain any document mentioning your political, union, religious or philosophical opinions or activities.
In accordance with medical confidentiality, no information relating to your health should be included either.
Only the administrative consequences of your state of health can appear in your file (sick leave order, medical advice, etc.).
Mention of amnestied disciplinary sanctions or erased is also prohibited.
On the other hand, the documents referring to the facts giving rise to the sanction are not withdrawn.
The individual file is unique : all documents concerning you must be collected there.
FYI
In the territorial civil service, the management centers constitute an individual file per official, for the exercise of their tasks towards the communities affiliated to them. This file includes a copy of the records, which are contained in the file maintained by the employer community, relating to the grievor's career. It is available to you and your employer community.
Paper or electronic file
Your folder can be managed in paper format.
It may also be created and managed, in whole or in part, on electronic support from digitized paper documents or produced directly in electronic form.
Where electronic and paper media coexist, any document placed on the file may be kept only on one of the two media, so that the file remains unique.
Move to electronic record
The conditions for the creation and transition to electronic file management shall be laid down by the administration, after consulting the Social Committee.
The administration shall draw up a list of documents, the categories of staff concerned and the timetable for implementing such management.
In particular, it shall fix the date from which any new documents entered in the file may be entered only in electronic form.
Transfer of file
In the event of secondment or making available, your file remains managed by your home administration.
Your host administration shall forward the documents drawn up during the period of secondment or making available.
The file is transferred to your host administration in the following situations:
- Transfer or integration into a new official's corps or framework of posts
- Hired by another jurisdiction if you are a contractor
If your host administration does not manage its agents’ files electronically, your home administration creates a paper copy of your electronic file.
Your electronic record is then destroyed.
Time limit for keeping the file
A retention period for current management is fixed by decree for each type of document.
Upon your departure, each document is subject to intermediate archiving or destruction under conditions set by order.
Intermediate archiving ends at your 80th birthday.
At the end of the intermediate archiving period, the documents shall be placed in a public archive or disposed of.
You can always ask, in writing, to consult your file.
You don't have to justify your request.
The administration must respond to your request within one month.
Beyond that, failure to respond is tantamount to refusal.
At the end of the one-month period, you can apply to the Commission d'accès aux documents administrative (Canada).
Canada shall issue an opinion on your application, which shall be communicated to you and your administration.
Your administration will inform Canada of the action it is taking on your request.
If she confirms her refusal, explicitly or silently, you can bring the matter before the administrative judge.
In the event of dematerialization of your file, you will be informed of the conditions under which you can assert your rights with regard to the processing of personal data.
In the case of the coexistence of an electronic medium with a paper medium, your request for access and rectification is valid for the entire file, whatever the medium.
You can request the rectification of information, the withdrawal or the addition of a document to your administration, either during the consultation or later.
For example, you can request that a letter stating a union mandate be removed from your file.
On the other hand, an interview report with your supervisor concerning your administrative situation must be included in your individual file.
Your administration should inform you that this document is on file.
You can't ask for it to be removed or destroyed.
You can request a copy of your file.
If your file is in electronic format, the copy is provided to you by one of the following means:
- Send to your business email address or deliver digital media
- Delivery of a paper copy of the original
The consultation can take place during working hours, but you can take the copy of your file with you to consult it at home.
Reminder
Your administrative record can only be viewed by you. But you can bring a person of your choice to the consultation.