Whose duty is it to prepare and keep a service member's personnel record, what must that record include, and who fills in the detail of how it is kept?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
In practice material of this kind, we read the papers that identify the service member and show the particulars of service, such as the military service history, since the record must include it. We also read any copy of the personnel record produced, and the Ministry of National Defense decree, which sets what preparing, maintaining and keeping the record requires in practice.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading takes the duty as written: the Minister of National Defense shall prepare, maintain and keep the personnel record of a service member, and that record includes the military service history, so the duty covers the whole of it and rests on that one office.
Another reading stresses what the provision does not require: managing the record through a database and building and running a system for electronic processing are expressed as things the Minister may do, so holding the record in electronic form is an option the provision permits rather than a condition of the duty.
Your judgment
Where the detail of preparing and keeping the record is left to the Ministry of National Defense decree, what in a file would show which version of that decree was in force at the relevant time?
PRO SE does not make this decision or keep a case record on this public site.When to reconsider
We look at this again if the provision is amended to change what the record must include or to make electronic management compulsory, or if a decision explains who may obtain a copy of a personnel record.