Laws and bylaws for office work

The normative and legal regulation of the office and archive work in the Republic of Macedonia is performed with:

• The Law on Archive Material and the Law on Amendments to the Law on Archive Material;
• Decree on office and archival work;
• Decree on determining the criteria for longer deadlines for the use of archival material.

According to the Law on Archival Material (Official Gazette of RM, No. 95 of 26.7.2012) and the Decree on Office and Archive Operations (Official Gazette of RM No. 1 of 3.1.2014) all entities in the country that with their create archival material of permanent value are obliged to record and store that material, in accordance with legal regulations, until the moment of its transfer to the State Archives of the Republic of Macedonia.

The Law on Archive Material regulates the protection, storage and use of archival material.

The Decree on Office and Archive Operations is based on the Law on Archive Material. According to her, the manner of work and the rules for handling the documentary and archive material in the office and archive work are regulated by the Government of the Republic of Macedonia. The decree, in addition to office work, also covers archival work. This is the reason why separating the archival material from the documentary material is an important segment of the archival work, and it also contains the other segments: archiving, arranging, recording the archival material, storing, protecting and using the archival and documentary material and handing over the archival material in The archive. The Decree regulates the office and archive work of all state bodies, enterprises and other legal entities with and without public authorizations (holders), which ensures mandatory application of the rules for office and archive work in the Republic of Macedonia.

The process of office and archival work are mutually conditioned and complement each other and make a single whole. The normative regulation of the administrative work of all holders provides a more efficient system of protection, storage and use of the archival material of the holders. The issues arising from the novelties contained in the provisions of the Law on Archive Material are regulated, such as: receipt, opening and distribution of acts, their postponement, classification, valorization, etc., alternative ways of conducting office work, the manner of issuing and using acts for official purposes, etc. The processes of archival work are also normatively elaborated, such as:

the manner of preparation and the procedure for adoption of the Plan of archival signs and lists of archival and documentary material, filling in and application of the deadline stamp, arrangement, selection, recording and categorization of the archival material, the manner and procedure of separation and destruction of the documentary material, security of spatial, technical and security measures for protection of the archive material and the manner and procedure for handover of the archive material for permanent storage of the Archive.

The instructions on the manner and technique of handling the documentary and archival material in office work are adopted by the Archives of Macedonia on the basis of Article 40 of the Decree on Office and Archive Work. The manual regulates in more detail the receipt, review and distribution, filing, submission, administrative-technical processing, sending, divorce, classification and disposal of completed acts in the registry office, as well as the selection, arrangement, recording and categorization of archival material, signing and destruction. the documentary material, the storage, protection and securing of the documentary and archive material in an appropriate space, the equipment, the technical-technological means and the transfer of the archive material for permanent storage in the Archive.

The provisions of the Guidelines are applied in the office and archive work of the state bodies, courts, local self-government units and the City of Skopje, enterprises and other legal entities, political parties, social organizations and citizens' associations, ie holders.

The archive receives the archive material from the holders in the following cases:

• after the expiration date of the material;
• in case of termination of work of the holder (bankruptcy);
• at the request of the holder himself;
• if the holder objectively does not have conditions for storage of the archive material, it can be deposited and handed over to the Archive.