This part sets forth the regulations of the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) implementing the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended (5 U.S.C. 552a). It governs access, maintenance, disclosure, and amendment of records contained in OGE's executive branch Governmentwide and internal systems of records, and establishes rules of conduct for OGE employees who have responsibilities under the Act.

For the purpose of this part, the terms listed below are defined as follows:

Access means providing a copy of a record to, or allowing review of the original record by, the data subject or the requester's authorized representative, parent or legal guardian;

Act means the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended, 5 U.S.C. 552a;

Amendment means the correction, addition, deletion, or destruction of a record or specific portions of a record;

Data subject means the individual to whom the information pertains and by whose name or other individual identifier the information is maintained or retrieved;

He, his, and him include she, hers and her.

Office or OGE means the U.S. Office of Government Ethics;

System manager means the Office or other agency official who has the authority to decide Privacy Act matters relative to a system of records;

System of records means a group of any records containing personal information controlled and managed by OGE from which information is retrieved by the name of an individual or by some personal identifier assigned to that individual;

Working day as used in calculating the date when a response is due means calendar days, excepting Saturdays, Sundays, and legal public holidays.

(a) Governmentwide systems of records. The Office of Government Ethics maintains two executive branch Governmentwide systems of records: the OGE/GOVT-1 system of records, comprised of Executive Branch Personnel Public Financial Disclosure Reports and Other Name-Retrieved Ethics Program Records; and the OGE/GOVT-2 system of records, comprised of Executive Branch Confidential Financial Disclosure Reports. These Governmentwide systems of records are maintained by OGE, and through Office delegations of authority, by Federal executive branch departments and agencies with regard to their own employees, applicants for employment, individuals nominated to a position requiring Senate confirmation, candidates for a position, and former employees.

(b) OGE Internal systems of records. The Office of Government Ethics internal systems of records are under OGE's physical custody and control and are established and maintained by the Office on current and former OGE employees regarding matters relating to the internal management of the Office. These systems of records consist of the OGE/INTERNAL-1 system, comprised of Pay, Leave and Travel Records; the OGE/INTERNAL-2 system, comprised of Telephone Call Detail Records; the OGE/INTERNAL-3 system, comprised of Grievance Records; the OGE/INTERNAL-4 system, comprised of Computer Systems Activity and Access Records; and the OGE/INTERNAL-5 system, comprised of Employee Locator and Emergency Notification Records.

(a) The procedures in this part apply to:

(1) All initial Privacy Act access and amendment requests regarding records contained in an OGE system of records.

(2) Administrative appeals from an Office or agency denial of an initial request for access to, or to amend, records contained in an OGE system of records.

(b) For records contained in an OGE Governmentwide system of records, each agency is responsible (unless specifically excepted by the Office) for responding to initial requests for access or amendment of records in its custody and administrative appeals of denials thereof.

(c) For records and material of another agency that are in the custody of OGE, but not under its control or ownership, OGE may refer a request for the records to that other agency, consult with the other agency prior to responding, or notify the requester that the other agency is the proper agency to contact.

An individual seeking to ascertain if any OGE system of records contains a record pertaining to him must follow the access procedures set forth at § 2606.201(a) and (b).

Each OGE employee involved in the design, development, operation, or maintenance of any system of records, or in maintaining any record covered by the Privacy Act, shall comply with the pertinent provisions of the Act relating to the treatment of such information. Particular attention is directed to the following provisions of the Privacy Act:

(a) 5 U.S.C. 552a(e)(7). The requirement to maintain in a system of records no record describing how any individual exercises rights guaranteed by the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States unless expressly authorized by statute or by the individual about whom the record is maintained or unless pertinent to and within the scope of an authorized law enforcement activity.

(b) 5 U.S.C. 552a(b). The requirement that no agency shall disclose any record which is contained in a system of records by any means of communication to any person or to another agency, except pursuant to a written request by, or with the prior written consent of, the individual to whom the record pertains, except under certain limited conditions specified in subsections (b)(1) through (b)(12) of the Privacy Act.

(c) 5 U.S.C. 552a(e)(1). The requirement for an agency to maintain in its systems of records only such information about an individual as is relevant and necessary to accomplish a purpose of the agency required to be accomplished by statute or by Executive order.

(d) 5 U.S.C. 552a(e)(2). The requirement to collect information to the greatest extent practicable directly from the subject individual when the information may result in adverse determinations about an individual's rights, benefits, and privileges under Federal programs.

(e) 5 U.S.C. 552a(e)(3). The requirement to inform each individual asked to supply information to be maintained in a system of records the authority which authorizes the solicitation of the information and whether disclosure of such information is mandatory or voluntary; the principal purpose or purposes for which the information is intended to be used; the routine uses which may be made of the information; and the effects on the individual, if any, of not providing all or any part of the requested information.

(f) 5 U.S.C. 552a(b) and (e)(10). The requirement to comply with established safeguards and procedures to ensure the security and confidentiality of records and to protect personal data from any anticipated threats or hazards to their security or integrity which could result in substantial harm, embarrassment, inconvenience, or unfairness to an individual on whom information is maintained in a system of records.

(g) 5 U.S.C. 552a(c)(1), (c)(2) and (c)(3). The requirement to maintain an accounting of specified disclosures of personal information from systems of records in accordance with established Office procedures.

(h) 5 U.S.C. 552a(e)(5) and (e)(6). The requirements to maintain all records in a system of records which are used by the agency in making any determination about an individual with such accuracy, relevance, timeliness, and completeness as is reasonably necessary to assure fairness to the individual in the determination; and to make reasonable efforts to assure that such records are accurate, complete, timely, and relevant for agency purposes, prior to disseminating any record about an individual to any person other than an agency (unless the dissemination is required by the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. 552).

(i) 5 U.S.C. 552a(d)(1), (d)(2) and (d)(3). The requirement to permit individuals to have access to records pertaining to themselves in accordance with established Office procedures and to have an opportunity to request that such records be amended.

(j) 5 U.S.C. 552a(c)(4) and (d)(4). The requirement to inform any person or other agency about any correction or notation of dispute made by the agency in accordance with subsection (d) of the Act of any record that has been disclosed to the person or agency if an accounting of the disclosure was made; and, in any disclosure of information about which an individual has filed a statement of disagreement, to note clearly any portion of the record which is disputed and to provide copies of the statement (and if the agency deems it appropriate, copies of a concise statement of the reasons of the agency for not making the amendments requested) to persons or other agencies to whom the disputed record has been disclosed.

(k) 5 U.S.C. 552a(n). The requirement for an agency not to sell or rent an individual's name or address, unless such action is specifically authorized by law.

(l) 5 U.S.C. 552a(i). The criminal penalties to which an employee may be subject for failing to comply with certain provisions of the Privacy Act.