SORN 09-90-0018

System name: Personnel Records in Operating Offices, HHS/OS/ASPER.

Security classification:  None.

System location:  Operating Offices of the Department at the organizational level of the individual's employment. Such offices are located within organizational components serviced by personnel offices shown in Applicants for Employment Records, HHS System 09-90-0006, Appendix 1.

Categories of individuals covered by the system:  Current employees of the Department.

Categories of records in the system:  This system consists of a variety of records relating to personnel actions and determinations made about an individual while employed. These records may contain information about an individual relating to name; birth date; home address; telephone number; emergency address; social security number; veterans preference; tenure; work connected injuries; employment history; qualifications background; past and present salaries, grades and position titles; training; awards and other recognition; counseling; performance appraisal; conduct; pay and leave; and data documenting reasons for personnel actions, decisions or recommendations made about an employee; and background data and documentation leading to an adverse action or other personnel action being taken against an employee.

Authority for maintenance of the system:  5 U.S.C. 1302, 2951, 4118, 4308, 4506, 7501, 7511, 7521 and Executive Order 10561.

Purpose(s):

These records are used by operating officials in carrying out their personnel management responsibilities. They may be used in this connection in recommending or taking personnel actions such as appointments, promotions, reassignments, within-grade increases, adverse actions; as a basis for employee training, recognition, or disciplinary actions; and as a basis for staffing and budgetary planning and control, organizational planning, and manpower utilization purposes. These records are maintained in each component of the Department.

Routine uses of records maintained in the system, including categories of users and the purposes of such uses:

Information in these records may be used:

(1) By the Office of Personnel Management, Merit Systems Protection Board including its Office of the Special Counsel), Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Labor Relations Authority (including the General Counsel of the Authority and the Federal Service Impasses Panel) in carrying out their functions.

(2) In the event an appeal is made outside the Department, records which are relevant may be referred to the appropriate agency charged with rendering a decision on the appeal.

(3) In the event that this system of records indicates a violation or potential violation of law, whether civil, criminal or regulatory in nature, and whether arising by general statute or particular program statute, or by regulation, rule or order issued pursuant thereto, the relevant records in the system of records may be referred, as a routine use, to the appropriate agency, whether federal, or

foreign, charged with the responsibility of investigating or prosecuting such violation or charged with enforcing or implementing the statute, or rule, regulation or order issued pursuant thereto.

(4) In the event the Department deems it desirable or necessary, in determining whether particular records are required to be disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act, disclosure may be made to the Department of Justice for the purpose of obtaining its advice.

(5) A record from this system of records may be disclosed as a “routine use'' to a federal, state or local agency maintaining civil, criminal or other relevant enforcement records or other pertinent records, such as current licenses, if necessary to obtain a record relevant to an agency decision concerning the hiring or retention of an employee, the issuance of a security clearance, the letting of a contract, or the issuance of a license, grant or other benefit.

A record from this system of records may be disclosed to a federal agency, in response to its request, in connection with the hiring or retention of an employee, the issuance of a security clearance, the reporting of an investigation of an employee, the letting of a contract, or the issuance of a license, grant or other benefit by the requesting agency, to the extent that the record is relevant and necessary to the requesting agency's decision on the matter.

(6) In the event that this system of records indicates a violation or potential violation of law, whether civil, criminal or regulatory in nature, and whether arising by general statute or particular program statute, or by regulation, rule or order issued pursuant thereto, the relevant records in the system of records may be referred, as a routine use to the appropriate agency, whether state or local charged with the responsibility of investigating or prosecuting such violation or charged with enforcing or implementing the statute, or rule, regulation or order issued pursuant thereto.

(7) Where federal agencies having the power to subpoena other federal agencies' records, such as the Internal Revenue Service or the Civil Rights Commission, issue a subpoena to the Department for records in this system of records, the Department will make such records available.

(8) Where a contract between a component of the Department and a labor organization recognized under E.O. 11491 or 5 U.S.C. Chapter 71 provides that the agency will disclose personal records relevant to the organization's mission, records in this system of records may be disclosed to such organization.

(9) The Department contemplates that it will contract with a private firm for the purpose of collating, analyzing, aggregating or otherwise refining records in this system. Relevant records will be disclosed to such a contractor. The contractor shall be required to maintain Privacy Act safeguards with respect to such records.

(10) Disclosure may be made to a congressional office from the record of an individual in response to an inquiry from the congressional office made at the request of that individual.

(11) In the event of litigation where the defendant is (a) the Department, any component of the Department, or any employee of the Department in his or her official capacity; (b) the United States where the Department determines that the claim, if successful, is likely to directly affect the operations of the Department or any of its components; or (c) any Department employee in his or her individual capacity where the Justice Department has agreed to represent such employee,

the Department may disclose such records as it deems desirable or necessary to the Department of Justice to enable that Department to present an effective defense, provided such disclosure is compatible with the purpose for which the records were collected.

(12) Records may be disclosed to student volunteers, individuals working under a personal services contract, and other individuals performing functions for the Department but technically not having the status of agency employees, if they need access to the records in order to perform their assigned agency functions.

Policies and practices for storing, retrieving, accessing, retaining, and disposing of records in the system:

Storage:  Records are maintained in file folders, magnetic tape, and index cards.

Retrievability:  Records are indexed by any combination of name, birth date, social security number, or identification number.

Safeguards:  Access to and use of these records are limited to those persons whose official duties require such access.

Retention and disposal:  Records are retained until there is no further administrative need to retain them, or the individual leaves the jurisdiction of the operating office, and are then either destroyed, or, if appropriate, are combined with the Official Personnel Folder, which is forwarded to the hiring Federal agency or, if the employee is leaving Federal service, to the National Personnel Records Center.

System manager(s) and address:  Personnel Officers of the Department. See Applicants for Employment Records, HHS System 09-90-0006, Appendix 1.

Notification procedure:  Immediate supervisors of individuals or the administrative offices of the organizational units in which employed. The system manager shown above may also provide further information concerning the existence of this system of records. Individuals should provide their name, social security number, and organization in which employed.

Record access procedures:  Same as notification procedures. Requesters should also reasonably specify the record contents being sought. (These access procedures are in accordance with Department Regulations (45 CFR 5b.5(a)(2)) Federal Register, October 8, 1975, page 47410.)

Contesting record procedures:  Contact the official at the address specified under notification procedures above, and reasonably identify the record and specify the information to be contested and state the corrective action sought and the reasons for the correction. (These procedures are in accordance with Department Regulations (45 CFR 5b.7) Federal Register, October 8, 1975, page 47411.).

Record source categories:  Information in this system of records either comes from the individual to whom it applies, is derived from information supplied by the individual, or is provided by Department officials.

Systems exempted from certain provisions of the act:  None.

Note.--When supervisors/managers retain personal “supervisory'' notes, i.e., information on employees, over which the agency exercises no control and does not require in its performance appraisal system, which remain for the personal use of the author and are not provided to any other persons, which are retained or discarded at the author's sole discretion, and which are not used in appraising an employee or in determining any rights, benefits or privileges of an employee, such notes are mere extensions of the supervisor's memory which are not subject to the Privacy Act and, therefore, not considered part of this system. If any of the above conditions are broken, these notes are no longer mere extensions of the supervisor's memory and become records subject to the Privacy Act in this system notice or another appropriate system notice.