Public services and bodies in Tunisia are required to elaborate, in collaboration with the National Archives of Tunisia, a programme for the management of their records following the stipulations of Act n° 88-95, 2 August 1988 relating to archives. Article n° 8 of the above-mentioned Act specifies that records management encompasses the whole number of procedures, work methods and operations applied to records throughout their whole lifecycle: production and creation, preservation and disposal. Decree n° 88-1981, 13 December 1988, fixes the basic elements of a records management programme.

This programme comprises all functions meant to ensure a proper use and exploitation of records. It involves the following :

setting up an exhaustive inventory for records and files ;

arranging the above-mentioned records according to
a classification mode ;

elaborating a records appraisal schedule.