NIH and the Federal Government are concerned with the safety and security of persons and property under their control. The contractor should ensure that reasonable care is provided to protect sensitive information, both in paper and electronic format, regarding building drawings and specifications for design, construction and/or renovation, security equipment and installation, and contract guard information related to NIH-controlled facilities from being used for illegal purposes. Contractors in providing information shall always follow the following three principles:
- Only give information to those who have a need to know.
- Keep records of who received the information.
- Safeguard the information during use.
All correspondence and transmittals shall be logged for tracking purposes. The log shall be submitted to the project officer at the end of a project. Emails with attachments should be treated as transmittals and saved in the specified project location.
The contractor shall keep track of who receives the information and shall request all the original documents plus the possible copies made by the receiver to be returned to the contractor for ultimate delivery or destruction of documents.
A list of all parties receiving the information shall be provided to the NIH Project Officer, and the list shall be updated anytime a new team member is added.
Paper/Hard copy progress documents may be destroyed when they are no longer applicable. The contractor shall keep a copy of required submittals for future reference and prior to complete close out of the project.
After complete closeout, other than the required set of documents for the government, all other hard copy and electronic copies of document shall be destroyed. A disclaimer form will be signed by the A/E to confirm complete compliance with NIH security procedure for documents.
