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FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION (FAR)

The Department of Defense (DoD), General Services Administration (GSA), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) jointly issue the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) for use by executive agencies in acquiring goods and services.

• GSA - General Services Acquisition Regulation (48 C.F.R. Part 552.216-73) FAR website
• Department of Defense (DOD) - FAR website
• NASA - Rules and Procurement
• A list of all procurement agencies is available here

Federal Acquisition Regulation (48 C.F.R. Parts 2 and 4), electronic contracts

From the Department of Defense current FAR

Subpart 4.7—Contractor Records Retention

(c) Nothing in this section shall be construed to preclude a contractor from duplicating or storing original records in electronic form unless they contain significant information not shown on the record copy. Original records need not be maintained or produced in an audit if the contractor or subcontractor provides photographic or electronic images of the original records and meets the following requirements:

(1) The contractor or subcontractor has established procedures to ensure that the imaging process preserves accurate images of the original records, including signatures and other written or graphic images, and that the imaging process is reliable and secure so as to maintain the integrity of the records.

A good esign system uses File Integrity Hashes that can be used by all parties to the electronic record to verify that no changes or errors have occurred.

(2) The contractor or subcontractor maintains an effective indexing system to permit timely and convenient access to the imaged records.

(3) The contractor or subcontractor retains the original records for a minimum of one year after imaging to permit periodic validation of the imaging systems.

A good esign service is available to anyone needing to sign your files, assuming they have internet access and an email address. It works on virtually every operating system and web browser. This allows it to truly be available to all. It needs to store all files for a minimum amount of time. Files can be stored for longer if downloaded. Download the file so that they may be in compliance with any applicable laws. This downloaded file can be saved to their computer, saved to a portable medium (CD, DVD or others) or even printed to paper.

(d) If the information described in paragraph (a) of this section is maintained on a computer, contractors shall retain the computer data on a reliable medium for the time periods prescribed. Contractors may transfer computer data in machine readable form from one reliable computer medium to another. Contractors’ computer data retention and transfer procedures shall maintain the integrity, reliability, and security of the original computer data. Contractors shall also retain an audit trail describing the data transfer. For the record retention time periods prescribed, contractors shall not destroy, discard, delete, or write over such computer data.

See storage statement above