National Archive System of the State (SNAE)

It can be defined as sets of documentary files following certain standards or

laws are processed and preserved uniformly throughout the Public Administration
Mozambican. Archiving System: a set of elements (entities, means,
procedures) that work in an articulated manner, aiming at the management of the
documents produced or received by an organism in the exercise of its
actividades (Decreto no36/2007)

For the purposes of the above-mentioned Decree, the following definitions are established:

a) Archive: the collection of documents of any time and form that,

regardless of the nature or support of the information, they are accumulated and
preserved due to their value throughout the activities of individuals
legal entities, public or private, to serve as reference, proof, information
or source of research;
b) State Archive: the set of documents produced and received by
agencies and institutions of the Public Administration, in the exercise of their functions.

The files of private law entities are included in the state's files.
in charge of public services.
c) Private file: the set of documents produced and received by individuals
natural and legal persons of private law, as a result of their activities,
deposited or not in public institutions;
d) Document evaluation commissions: multidisciplinary technical groups, with
the responsibility of coordinating the processes of evaluation, selection, listing of
archive documents and preparation of classification plan proposals
tables of the timeline of end activities to be presented to the body
competent for approval;
e) Units of document management: organic unit responsible for maintaining the
centralized file of documents selected from a source
producer, working alongside the central, provincial, and district bodies of
SNAE;

There is a need to adapt the National Archives System to the guidelines provided in
Strategy for the Management of State Documents and Archives and in the Action Plan
for its Implementation approved by Resolution No. 46/2006, of December 26,
The Council of Ministers, under the provisions of subparagraph f) of paragraph 1 of article 204 of

Constitution of the Republic, decrees:

Article 1.

The National Archives System created by Decree No. 33/92, of 26 is amended.

October, now referred to as the National Archives System of the State,
abbreviated as SNAE, as set forth in Annex I, which is part of
member of this decree.

Article 2.

1. The Document Classification Plan for Supporting Activities is approved.

Table of Temporalities and Disposition of Documents for Support Activities
Public Administration and the Classifier of Classified Information, which constitute
Annexes II, III, and IV to this Decree, of which they are an integral part.

It is up to the entity that oversees public administration to approve the

methodology for preparation and classification plans and the tables of temporality of
end activities, as well as the classifiers of sectoral classified information.

Article 3.

Chapter VI of the Regulatory Instructions for the Operation of the is revoked.

Secretariats of District and Local Administrative Services, approved by Ordinance No.
21869, of February 27, 1969, and the provisions that contradict this Decree.

Article.4.

This Decree comes into force six months after its publication.

File System.

A file system is a set of logical structures that allows the system

operational control the access to a storage device such as a hard disk,
pen drive, CD-ROM, etc. Different operating systems may use different
file systems.
The instruments for the operationalization of SNAE.

Operationalization Instruments of SNAE

For the operationalization of the SNAE in public administration institutions, there are
formulated corresponding models, namely:

Document Classification Plan for Archives (attached in document 1).

Table of document retention for activities

means of public administration. (annex no2).

Information Classifier in Public Function. (Annex no3).

Procedure Manual for the application of SNAE. (attached no4).

Structure of SNAE

According to Chapter II, section 1 of article 5, in its number 1

1. The National Archive System of the State (SNAE) integrates the following structure. a)
Central directorate

a) Central organs;
Provincial bodies;
c) District organs.

2. The entity that oversees public administration is the central directing body.
of the system.

3. The central, provincial, and district bodies referred to in subparagraphs b), c), and d) of
number 1 of this article includes, each one at its level, the following
estruturas: a) Arquivos correntes;

a) Units for managing documents in intermediate archives;

b) Evaluation committees for documents.

4. The Historical Archive of Mozambique is the body responsible for the management of documents in the phase

permanent and advisory to the central directorate of the System.

Document classification of archives

The classification is used with the aim of grouping documents under the same
general theme, the documents that must be filed by subject are those relating to
internal administration and related activities. Depending on the volume of
Documentation to be stored by subject, you can choose more or less methods.
complex, capable of meeting the needs of the agency.

However, the subject-based filing method is not easy to apply, as it depends

from the interpretation made of the documents under analysis, in addition to broad knowledge

the institutional activities that should be had, being more advisable in cases where
that there are large document masses and a variety of subjects.

In many public and private institutions in our Country, it is common to confuse a

subject with the documentary species. Thus, incorrectly, they adopt themselves as classification

by subject, for example: incoming correspondence and outgoing correspondence,

contracts, agreements, opinions, telegrams, telex, minutes, etc. Are adopted as
auxiliary subdivisions.

There are no standardized subject classification schemes, as occurs in

relation to librarianship that uses the DDC (Dewey Decimal Classification) and the UDC
Universal Decimal Classification.

According to Article 4 of the SNAE, the use of document classification in archives has
as an objective.

a) Harmonize the various phases of document management, attending to the

specificities of the generating and accumulating organs of the collections;

b) Organize, in a dynamic and articulated way, the management activities of

documents and files in state agencies, with a view to making it more efficient the
information retrieval process for administrative and scientific purposes;
c) Ensure the protection and preservation of the documents generated and received in
exercise of functions of public and private organs and institutions, covered by
administrative, historical, and scientific value;
d) Facilitate public access to the national archival heritage in accordance with the
information needs, respecting the provisions of the confidentiality regulations
State and other laws governing access to information;
e) Integrate and coordinate the activities of archive document management;
f) Articulate with other systems that act directly or indirectly in the
management of the documentary and archival heritage of the Mozambican state;
 g) Ensure the elimination of documents that do not have administrative value.
fiscal, legal, or for scientific research.

Classifying the documents

Documents can be public and confidential depending on the subject they address.

The classification of Ostensive is given to documents that may be freely accessible or

disclosure, which may be public domain.

Documents that are confidential by nature must be of

restricted knowledge, requiring, therefore, special safeguard measures for the
its custody and disclosure.

Due to its importance, confidentiality and the subject of specific legislation.

Classification of the four degrees of secrecy

State Secret – information whose unauthorized disclosure,

origin of exceptionally severe damage to the Secret State - the information whose
Unauthorized disclosure causes serious harm to the State.

Confidential - information whose unauthorized disclosure originates

damage to production, goods or services.

Restricted - to information whose unauthorized disclosure may be

disadvantageous for the security, development, and well-being of the citizens of
Republic of Mozambique.

Conceptualize the documents

Document - is any information recorded on a material support, capable of being

used for consultation, study, exam, research, as it proves facts, phenomena,
ways of life and thoughts of man in a certain time and place. (Manual of
Procedures of the (SNAE, 2009)).

It is everything that serves to instruct or provide any information.

Everything that teaches us something new or reminds us of something forgotten.

All information documented in some way leaves some evidence or

witness recorded on a medium.
Difference between Museum and Archive.

Museum - created with the purpose of preserving, studying, and making available to
public, set of pieces and objects of cultural value

The museum is a collecting body, that is, the collection is artificial and classified according to the
nature of the material and the specific purpose of the museum to which it belongs; and its

final objectives are educational and cultural, even guarding some types of
documents originally of a functional nature. (BELLOTTO, 2006, p.39).

File - is the set of documents produced and/or received by an entity.

whether public, private or individuals during their activities and preserved
for the achievement of their objectives, aiming at the utility they can offer in
future.

The file is a receiving entity (naturally collects what is produced by the public administration.
or private to which it serves) and in its collection the documentary sets are gathered
according to its origin and function, that is, its divisions correspond to the organizational chart of

respective administration; the primary objectives of the archive are legal, functional and
administrative and secondary purposes will be cultural and historical research, when
if the legal validity period of the documents has expired (in other words,
when the reasons for which they were created cease); and the generating source is unique, that is,
administração ou a pessoa à qual o arquivo é ligado. (BELLOTTO, 2006, p.38).

Timeliness table

The Council of Ministers approved during the 19th ordinary session of that body,
held on the 24th of July of this year, new regulatory instruments
for the State Documentation and Archives area. It is about the National System of
State Archives (SNAE), Document Classification Plan for activities
– means, Table of Temporality and destination of documents for activities – means
from Public Administration and the Classifier of classified information.

This act materializes what is stated in the National Strategy for Management of
Documents and State Files, approved by the Council of Ministers on the 26th of
October 2006. The approval of these regulatory instruments fills a void.
that since the country's independence in 1975, has been observed in the area of
Documentation and State Files. The SNAE is an instrument aimed at maintaining
integrated and articulated the levels, thus ensuring harmonization in the different phases
from document management. The National Archives System of the State emerges as
result of the alteration of the National Archives System created by Decree No. 33/92,
October 26 due to the ineffectiveness demonstrated by this system, during the
fifteen years of its validity, combined with the inadequacy of some of its provisions to
current reality.

The Table of Timeliness and the Classifier of classified information deal with
instruments for the operationalization of SNAE. In this context, the Classification Plan
will allow standardization in the classification of documents related to activities -
half, that is, those that are common in all the branches and institutions of
The Public Administration of the country, while the Time Table aims to, among
others file and determines their final destination. The Information Classifier
classified will allow the classification of documents that contain information
considered discreet.

In its structure, the SNAE integrates the following bodies: Central directorate, bodies
central, provincial, and district. The central governing body is composed of the entity that
superintendent in Public Administration and, the central, provincial and district bodies
understand, each one at their level, through the following structures: Current file,
Document management units of the intermediate archives and commissions of
document evaluation.

The present instruments will come into effect in all bodies and institutions of
Public Administration, six months after its approval by the Council of
ministers, however, preceding this act, has been ongoing since August 13 of this year,
a cycle of lectures aimed at promoting these instruments in the bodies and
public administration institutions.