All e-mail messages that reside on NIH e-mail systems are government property; however, not all e-mail messages are official records that need to be retained by the agency.
Staff who are departing from an IC or NIH due to retirement, reassignment, etc., should familiarize themselves with the electronic records management policy located at https://oma.od.nih.gov/DMS/Pages/Records-Management.aspx in advance of their departure date, so they are aware of their responsibilities with respect to official electronic records, including e-mail. Records that meet the definition of “official records” must be maintained for the retention period stated in the NIH Records Control Schedule and passed on to the supervisor upon departure. All non-official records or those past the retention period should be destroyed. No copies of official records may be removed from NIH without the written permission of the employee’s supervisor. Users should contact their IC Records Officer if additional information is needed.
Also, e-mail may not be forwarded after NIH staff leave; however, staff may make a request to the NIH IT Service Desk to have their Active Directory (AD) account placed in a transition Organizational Unit (OU) for 60 days so that their ‘Out-of-Office message could be set up to inform e-mail senders of their status. The account would also be set to automatically delete after 60 days unless further action is taken on the account (e.g. transfer to new IC or other authorized action).