THEODORE R. MCKELDIN, GOVERNOR 817

Administrative Departments", be and it is hereby repealed
and re-enacted, with amendments, and to read as follows:

154. If the Commission shall decline to accept any
original papers, official books, records, documents or files
offered to it under the provisions of Section 153, then the
custodian thereof, with the written approval of the Board
of Public Works, is authorized and empowered to destroy
the same. After such records are destroyed, the custodian
thereof shall file with the Hall of Records a list of all
papers, books, documents and files destroyed and a certifi-
cate of destruction. Such lists shall be retained in the
custody of the Archivist and shall be available at reason-
able times to inspection by the members of the public.
Nothing in this section shall authorize the destruction of
(a) papers, books, documents or files which have been in
custody for a period of less than three years, or such other
period as may be expressly prescribed by statute, (b)
public records required by statute to be maintained per-
manently, (c) permanent books of account, (d) the records
of any Court of record in this State; but old records of
which accurate transcriptions have been made and placed
in use, under the terms of Article 26, Section 14, and the
"housekeeping" records or the records of internal manage-
ment of the offices of Clerks of Court and Registers of
Wills shall not be considered "records of a Court" for the
purpose of Sections 154-156 and shall be subject to dis-
posal as described above [. ], provided, however, that the
books, accounts, and records pertaining to the financial
operations of any agency or department, officers, boards
and commissions of the State of Maryland, and of all
Clerks of Courts, Registers of Wills, and all Collectors of
State Taxes of the State of Maryland, including the City
of Baltimore, insofar as they affect the collection of State
taxes, shall not be destroyed until such time as the re-
quirements of Article 19, Sections 29 to 34, inclusive (1951
Annotated Code), relating to the audit of such books,
accounts and records by the State Auditor, shall have been
complied with.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That this Act shall
take effect June 1, 1953.

Approved April 11, 1953.