Case Information
*1 request and supplied the calendars to the GSA official. Before GSA had produced the calendars to the Committee, however, the former official, by means of an October 12, 1989 letter from his attorney, requested that the calendars be returned to him. In the letter he also objected to GSA produc *2 ing the calendars to the Committee, on the grounds that the calendars were his personal property and disclosure to Congress in these circumstances would violate his rights.
After receiving the former official’s letter, GSA advised the Committee that it was withholding the calendars pending review by GSA and this Office of the former official’s position.
II. Discussion The question presented is whether the former official’s appointment cal endars should be treated as government property or personal property for purposes of the Committee’s oversight request. More specifically, the ques tion is whether on September 26, 1989 — the date the Committee requested the calendars — they were government property (with respect to which GSA was responsible for responding to the Committee) or the former official’s personal property (with respect to which the former official was responsible for responding to the Committee).
Under GSA’s records retention regulations, only “official records” (as defined in the regulations) are government property: “All Federal em ployees must understand that official records belong to the Government, not to any individual . . . ” GSA Order entitled “GSA Records Maintenance and Disposition System,” Order OADP1820.2CHGE76, ch. 2, § 1 (Aug. 12, 1985). The section of the regulations entitled “Distinction between official and personal records” makes it clear that appointment calendars are personal records rather than official records:
Personal calendars, appointment books, schedules, and diaries showing meetings, appointments, trips, and other activities of a high-level official solely for the convenience of the high- level official in managing his or her time are personal records. Documents such as these may be disposed of at the discretion of the official.
Id., ch. 2, § 4(b)(3).
Thus, the appointment calendars of high-level GSA officials are not gov ernment property. Rather, they are “personal records . . . [that] may be disposed of at the discretion of the official.” Id. In our view, the actions the former official took, prior to the Committee’s request, to dispose o f the calendars by taking them with him when he departed the agency clearly
constituted the exercise of the official’s right under the GSA regulations to treat the calendars as personal property and dispose of them as he wishes.
We therefore conclude that at the time the Committee requested the cal endars they were the personal property of the former official and not government property. Accordingly, in these circumstances the former offi cial and not GSA is responsible for responding to the Committee’s request for the calendars. They should be returned to the former official.3
LYNDA GUILD SIMPSON Deputy Assistant Attorney General Office o f Legal Counsel *3 5 T hese conclusions are unaffected by the fact that after the Com m ittee’s request was received the form er official supplied the calendars to the agency for production to the Committee. The calendars w ere his personal property at the time o f the request, and any apparent consent to perm it GSA to produce the calendars to the Committee w as clearly retracted by the October 12, 1989 letter from the o fficial’s attorney.