All public officers and servants shall correctly make and accurately keep in and for their respective offices or places of business all such books or sets of books, documents, files, papers, letters and copies of letters as at all times shall afford full and detailed information in reference to the activities or business required to be done or carried on by such officer or servant and from which the actual status and condition of such activities and business can be ascertained without extraneous information, and all of the books, documents, files, papers, letters, and copies of letters so made and kept shall be carefully protected and safely preserved and guarded from mutilation, loss or destruction.
Ala. Code § 36-12-2 (1975)