It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows:

SECTION 1. Sections 38-1-1, 38-1-10 and 38-1-11 of the General Laws in Chapter 38-1 entitled "Custody and Protection" are hereby amended to read as follows:

38-1-1. Delivery of records on leaving public office. -- Every person who shall hold a public office shall, upon leaving the office, deliver to his or her successor in office, or, if there is no successor, to the director of the department of administration public records administration program of the office of secretary of state, all records, books, writings, letters, and documents, kept or received by him or her in the transaction of his or her official business, and to the director of the department of administration all money in his or her hands which he or she shall have received as trust funds from any person or otherwise in the course of his or her official business; and every person who shall, without just cause, refuse or neglect for the space of ten (10) days after request made in writing by any citizen of the state, to deliver as herein required those records, books, writings, letters, or documents, or to pay over those moneys, to the person authorized to receive the requested items, shall be fined not exceeding five hundred dollars ($500) and be imprisoned not exceeding five (5) years.

38-1-10. Disposal of records. -- No public official may mutilate, destroy, sell, loan, or otherwise dispose of any public record without the consent of the public records administration program of the department of administration secretary of state.

38-1-11. Assistance of the public records administration program. -- The public records administration program of the department of administration secretary of state shall have the right to examine the condition of public records and shall give advice and assistance to public officials in the solution of their problems of preserving, creating, filing, and making available the public records in their custody. When requested by the program, public officials shall assist the program in the preparation of records control schedules of public records in their custody approved by the head of the agency having custody of the records. Upon review and approval of the schedules by the program, the program shall, subject to the availability of necessary space, staff, and other facilities for those purposes, make available space in its record center for the filing of semi-current records so scheduled and in its public records repository for noncurrent records of permanent value and shall render such other assistance as needed, including the microfilming of records so scheduled.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.