Office of Information Practices

Opinion Letter No. 94-29
December 30, 1994
Individual Has Access to Unofficial Personnel File

The University of Hawaii’s Department of Agronomy and Social Science (Department) must make an unofficial personnel file available for inspection and copying to the former employee to whom the file pertains. The Department originally denied the former employee’s request to inspect the unofficial personnel file because of the University’s policy that a request to inspect a personnel file is to be handled by the University’s personnel office maintaining the official personnel file.

The OIP found that the Department’s unofficial personnel file was a “personal record” under the UIPA because it was “information about an individual that is maintained by an agency.” Under the UIPA, the determination of whether a record is a “personal record” does not rest upon whether the agency considers the record to be official.

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