The Director, NACIC will make final NACIC decisions from appeals of initial adverse decisions under the Privacy Act and such other information release decisions made under 32 CFR parts 1800, 1802, and 1803 of this chapter. Matters decided by the Director, NACIC will be deemed a final decision by NACIC.

(a) Right of Appeal. A right of administrative appeal exists whenever access to any requested record or any portion thereof is denied, no records are located in response to a request, or a request for amendment is denied. NACIC will apprise all requesters in writing of their right to appeal such decisions to the Director, NACIC through the Coordinator.

(b) Requirements as to time and form. Appeals of decisions must be received by the Coordinator within forty-five (45) days of the date of NACIC's initial decision. NACIC may, for good cause and as a matter of administrative discretion, permit an additional thirty (30) days for the submission of an appeal. All appeals to the Director, NACIC shall be in writing and addressed as specified in § 1801.3. All appeals must identify the documents or portions of documents at issue with specificity, provide the desired amending language (if applicable), and may present such information, data, and argument in support as the requester may desire.

(c) Exceptions. No appeal shall be accepted if the requester has outstanding fees for information services at this or another federal agency. In addition, no appeal shall be accepted if the information in question has been the subject of an administrative review within the previous two (2) years or is the subject of pending litigation in the federal courts.

(d) Receipt, recording, and tasking. NACIC shall promptly record each administrative appeal, acknowledge receipt to the requester in writing, and thereafter effect the necessary taskings to the office chief in charge of the office(s) which originated or has an interest in the record(s) subject to the appeal.

Each Office Chief in charge of an office which originated or has an interest in any of the records subject to the appeal, or designee, is a required party to any appeal; other interested parties may become involved through the request of the Coordinator when it is determined that some or all of the information is also within their official cognizance. These parties shall respond in writing to the Coordinator with a finding as to the exempt or non-exempt status of the information including citations to the applicable exemption and/or their agreement or disagreement as to the requested amendment and the reasons therefore. Each response shall be provided expeditiously on a “first-in, first-out” basis taking into account the business requirements of the parties and consistent with the information rights of members of the general public under the various information review and release laws.

(a) Preparation of docket. The Coordinator shall provide a summation memorandum for consideration of the Director, NACIC; the complete record of the request consisting of the request, the document(s) (sanitized and full text) at issue, and the findings of any concerned office chiefs or designee(s).

(b) Decision by the Director, NACIC. The Director, NACIC shall personally decide each case; no personal appearances shall be permitted without the express permission of the Director, NACIC.

(a) In general. The Coordinator shall promptly prepare and communicate the decision of the Director, NACIC to the requester. With respect to any decision to deny information or deny amendment, that correspondence shall state the reasons for the decision, identify the officer responsible, and include a notice of the right to judicial review.

(b) For amendment requests. With further respect to any decision to deny an amendment, that correspondence shall also inform the requester of the right to submit within forty-five (45) days a statement of his or her choice which shall be included in the official records of NACIC. In such cases, the applicable record system manager shall clearly note any portion of the official record which is disputed, append the requester's statement, and provide copies of the statement to previous recipients (if any are known) and to any future recipients when and if the disputed information is disseminated in accordance with a routine use.