OBLIGATIONS OF LEGAL ENTITIES – LAW ON ARCHIVAL MATERIAL AND ARCHIVAL ACTIVITY
The new Law on Archival Material and Archival Activity (Official Gazette of the RS, No. 6/2020), whose application began on February 2nd, 2021, defines the obligations for legal entities in relation to the management of documentation created in their work.
The new Law on Archival Material and Archival Activity (“Official Gazette of the RS”, No. 6/2020), whose application began on February 2nd, 2021, defines the obligations for legal entities in relation to the management of documentation created in their work. In addition to introducing numerous novelties in terms of obligations, the Law has significantly increased the prescribed fines for non-compliance with these provisions.
The most important obligations are listed below.

Obligations of legal entities

The legal entity, as the creator and holder of archival material and documentary material, is obliged to conscientiously keep the archival material and documentary material in an orderly and safe condition in the form in which they were created. In addition, it is obliged to:
1) provide adequate space and equipment for the storage and protection of archival material and documentary material;
2) appoint a responsible expert for the protection of archival material and documentary material and the management of archival material and documentary material;
3) record, mark, classify, date and archivearchival material and documentary material;
4) keep an archive book on the prescribed form;
5) submit to the competent archive a transcript of the archive book no later than April 30thof the current year, for documentary material created in the previous year.

In addition, the legal entity is obliged to pass:

1) general act on the manner of recording, classifying, archiving and storing archival material and documentary material;
2) a list of categories of archival material and documentary material with retention periods;
3) general act on the manner of recording, protection, and use of electronic documents.
(The competent public archive gives consent to the list of categories of archival material and documentary material with retention periods.)

In addition to the above, there are obligations that relate to certain specific situations and oblige the legal entity to:

1) obtain the opinion of the competent archive before taking measures related to archival material and documentary material (status changes, physical relocation, adaptation of premises, initiation of bankruptcy or liquidation, microfilming, digitalization, etc.);
2) select archival material and allocate for the purpose of destruction worthless documentary material whose storage period has expired, one year from the date of expiration of the established period;
3) act in accordance with the measures and deadlines imposed by the competent archive by a decision and on the basis of a previously made record on the determined state of protection of archival material and documentary material;
4) within 30 days, inform the competent archive about its establishment, as well as about all changes in the status and organization (change of status and/or name, change of organization, change of address, as well as termination of work).

For non-compliance with these provisions, the legal entity will be fined from 50,000 to 2,000,000 RSD, and the responsible person in the legal entity will be fined from 5,000 to 150,000 RSD.

On May 7th, 2021, the Ministry of Culture and Information submitted an opinion to the Historical Archive of Belgrade, according to which, due to difficult business conditions and in accordance with the law, the deadline for all legal entities to prepare mandatory regulations is extended until December 31st, 2021, and the obligation to submit a transcript of the archive book arises in 2022, ie the transcript shall be submitted by April 30th, 2022. We advise that legal entities that are not territorially under the jurisdiction of the Historical Archive of Belgrade, check with the competent archives whether the stated deadlines have been extended.

For all additional questions, as well as the preparation of the above acts and legal assistance in fulfilling all other prescribed obligations, you can contact us via e-mail: office@akt.rs.