(a) Legal counsel. The General Counsel (GC) shall furnish legal advice to Peace Corps officials and staff as to their obligations under this part and shall take such other actions as may be necessary or appropriate to assure a consistent and equitable application of the provisions of this part by and within the Peace Corps. The OIG Legal Counsel will coordinate with GC, as appropriate and necessary, when furnishing legal advice to the OIG FOIA Officer and Inspector General.

(b) Authority to grant or deny requests. The FOIA Officer is authorized to grant or deny requests for records, except for OIG records, under this part. The OIG FOIA Officer is authorized to grant or deny requests for OIG records under this part. The FOIA Officer and the OIG FOIA Officer shall consult with each other when a request includes both Peace Corps and OIG records in order to ensure consistency and lack of duplication in processing the request.

(c) Authority to grant or deny appeals. The Associate Director for the Office of Management is authorized to grant or deny appeals under § 303.13(a) through (c) except in the case of appeals from denials of requests for OIG records. The Inspector General is authorized to grant or deny appeals under § 303.13(a) through (c) from denials of requests for OIG records. Both the Associate Director for the Office of Management and the Inspector General shall follow this part in processing appeals.

(d)(1) Records received from other agencies. When the Peace Corps receives a request for a record in its possession that it has received from another agency, it shall determine whether the other agency is better qualified to decide whether the record is exempt from disclosure and, if so, whether it should be disclosed as a matter of discretion. If the Peace Corps determines it is better qualified to process the record in response to the request, then it shall do so. If the Peace Corps determines it is not better qualified to process the request, it shall either:

(i) Consult with the other agency before responding to the request; or

(ii) Refer the responsibility for responding to the request for the record to the other agency (but only if the agency is subject to FOIA). Ordinarily, the agency that originated a record will be presumed to be best able to determine whether to disclose it.

(2) Law enforcement and classified information. Notwithstanding paragraph (c)(1) of this section:

(i) Whenever the Peace Corps receives a request for a record containing information that relates to an investigation of a possible violation of law that was originated by another agency, the Peace Corps will either consult with the other agency before responding or refer the responsibility for responding to the request to the other agency; and

(ii) Whenever a request is made for a record containing information that has been classified by another agency or may be appropriate for classification under Executive Order 13525 or any other executive order concerning the classification of records, the Peace Corps shall refer the responsibility for responding to the request regarding that information to the agency that classified the information, should consider the information for classification, or has the primary interest in the information, as appropriate.

(3) Notice of referral. Whenever the Peace Corps refers all or any part of the responsibility for responding to a request to another agency, it ordinarily shall notify the requester of the referral and inform the requester of the name of the agency to which the request has been referred and the part of the request that has been referred and provide the requester with a point of contact within the receiving agency to whom the requester can speak regarding the referral.

(4) Effect of consultations and referrals on timing of response. All consultations and referrals will be handled according to the date the FOIA request was initially received by the Peace Corps.

(5) Agreements with other agencies. The Peace Corps may make agreements with other agencies to eliminate the need for consultations or referrals for particular types of records.