This part contains the regulations of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) implementing the Privacy Act of 1974, 5 U.S.C. 552a. This part sets forth the basic responsibilities of CIGIE with regard to CIGIE's compliance with the requirements of the Privacy Act and offers guidance to members of the public who wish to exercise any of the rights established by the Privacy Act with regard to records maintained by CIGIE. These regulations should be read in conjunction with the Privacy Act, which explains in more detail individuals' rights.

(a) Centralized program. CIGIE has a centralized Privacy Act program, with one office receiving and coordinating the processing of all Privacy Act requests to CIGIE.

(b) Acceptance of requests and appeals. CIGIE will accept initial requests or appeals regarding CIGIE records.

(a) For purposes of this part the terms individual, maintain, record, routine use, and system of records, shall have the meanings set forth in 5 U.S.C. 552a(a).

(b) CIGIE means the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency and includes its predecessor entities, the Executive Council on Integrity and Efficiency and the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency.

(c) Days, unless stated as “calendar days,” are working days and do not include Saturdays, Sundays, or Federal holidays.

(d) IC means the CIGIE Integrity Committee established under section 11(d) of the Inspector General Act of 1978, as amended, 5 U.S.C. app. (Inspector General Act).

(e) Request for access to a record means a request made under Privacy Act subsection (d)(1).

(f) Request for amendment of a record means a request made under Privacy Act subsection (d)(2).

(g) Request for an accounting means a request made under Privacy Act subsection (c)(3).

(h) Requester means an individual who makes a request for access, a request for amendment, or a request for an accounting under the Privacy Act.

(i) PRAC means the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee established under Section 15010 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, Public Law 116-136, 134 Stat. 281.

An individual seeking to determine if a specific CIGIE system of records contains a record pertaining to the individual must follow the procedures set forth for access to records in § 9801.201(a), (b)(1) and (2), (c), and (d). A request to determine if an individual is the subject of a record will ordinarily be responded to within 10 days, except when CIGIE determines otherwise, in which case the request will be acknowledged within 10 days and the individual will be informed of the reasons for the delay and an estimated date by which a response will be issued.

CIGIE will inform its employees involved in the design, development, operation, or maintenance of any system of records, or in maintaining any record, of the provisions of the Privacy Act, including the Act's civil liability and criminal penalty provisions. Unless otherwise permitted by law, an employee of CIGIE shall:

(a) Collect from individuals only the information that is relevant and necessary to discharge the responsibilities of CIGIE;

(b) Collect information about an individual directly from that individual whenever practicable when the information may result in adverse determinations about an individual's rights, benefits, and privileges under Federal programs;

(c) Inform each individual from whom information is collected of:

(1) The legal authority to collect the information and whether providing it is mandatory or voluntary;

(2) The principal purpose for which CIGIE intends to use the information;

(3) The routine uses CIGIE may make of the information; and

(4) The effects on the individual, if any, of not providing the information;

(d) Maintain no system of records without public notice and notify appropriate CIGIE officials of the existence or development of any system of records that is not the subject of a current or planned public notice;

(e) Maintain all records that are used by CIGIE in making any determination about an individual with such accuracy, relevance, timeliness, and completeness as is reasonably necessary to ensure fairness to the individual in the determination;

(f) Except as to disclosures made to an agency or made under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. 552 (FOIA), make reasonable efforts, prior to disseminating any record about an individual, to ensure that the record is accurate, relevant, timely, and complete;

(g) Maintain no record describing how an individual exercises his or her First Amendment rights, unless it is expressly authorized by statute or by the individual about whom the record is maintained, or is pertinent to and within the scope of an authorized law enforcement activity;

(h) When required by the Privacy Act, maintain an accounting in the specified form of all disclosures of records by CIGIE to persons, organizations, or agencies;

(i) Maintain and use records with care to prevent the unauthorized or inadvertent disclosure of a record to anyone. No record contained in a CIGIE system of records shall be disclosed to another person, or to another agency outside CIGIE, except pursuant to a written request by, or with the prior written consent of, the individual to whom the record pertains, unless the disclosure is otherwise authorized by the Privacy Act; and

(j) Notify the appropriate CIGIE official of any record that contains information that the Privacy Act does not permit CIGIE to maintain.

(a) No denial of right, benefit, or privilege. Individuals may not be denied any right, benefit, or privilege as a result of refusing to provide their social security numbers, unless the collection is required by Federal statute; and

(b) Notification to individual. Individuals requested to provide their social security numbers must be informed of:

(1) Whether providing social security numbers is mandatory or voluntary;

(2) The statutory or regulatory authority that authorizes the collection of social security numbers; and

(3) The uses that will be made of the numbers.

Nothing in this part shall be construed to entitle any person, as of right, to any service or to the disclosure of any record to which such person is not entitled under the Privacy Act.