09-90-0018 SYSTEMS
LISTING
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(es):
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.