[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 70 (Tuesday, April 14, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 17283-17286]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-8448]


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DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS


Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records

AGENCY: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

ACTION: Notice of amendment to system of records.

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SUMMARY: As required by the Privacy Act of 1974, 5 U.S.C. 552a(e), 
notice is hereby given that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is 
amending the system of records currently entitled ``Call Detail 
Records--VA'' (90VA194) as set forth in the Federal Register 68 FR 
12738. VA is amending the system of records by revising the Routine 
Uses of Records Maintained in the System Including Categories of Users 
and the Purpose of Such Uses. VA is republishing the system notice in 
its entirety.

DATES: Comments on the amendment of this system of records must be 
received no later than May 14, 2009. If no public comment is received, 
the amended system will become effective May 14, 2009.

ADDRESSES: Written comments may be submitted through http://www.Regulations.gov; by mail or hand-delivery to Director, Regulations 
Management (02REG), Department of Veterans Affairs, 810 Vermont Avenue, 
NW., Room 1068, Washington, DC 20420; or by fax to (202) 273-9026. 
Comments received will be available for public inspection in the Office 
of Regulation Policy and Management, Room 1063B, between the hours of 8 
a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday (except holidays). Please 
call (202) 461-4902 (this is not a toll-free number) for an 
appointment. In addition, during the comment period, comments may be 
viewed Online through the Federal Docket Management System (FDMS) at 
http://www.Regulations.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Veterans Health Administration (VHA) 
Privacy Officer, Department of Veterans Affairs, 810 Vermont Avenue, 
NW., Washington, DC 20420; telephone (704) 245-2492.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Report of Intent to Amend a System on 
Records Notice and an advance copy of the system notice have been sent 
to the appropriate Congressional committees and to the Director of the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as required by 5 U.S.C. 552a(r) 
(Privacy Act) and guidelines issued by OMB (65 FR 77677), December 12, 
2000.

[[Page 17284]]

    Routine use 14 was added for the VA to disclose information from 
this system of records to the Department of Justice (DoJ), either on 
VA's initiative or in response to DoJ's request for the information, 
after either VA or DoJ determines that such information is relevant to 
DoJ's representation of the United States or any of its components in 
legal proceedings before a court or adjudicative body, provided that, 
in each case, the agency also determines prior to disclosure that 
release of the records to the DoJ is a use of the information contained 
in the records that is compatible with the purpose for which VA 
collected the records. VA, on its own initiative, may disclose records 
in this system of records in legal proceedings before a court or 
administrative body after determining that the disclosure of the 
records to the court or administrative body is a use of the information 
contained in the records that is compatible with the purpose for which 
VA collected the records.
    Routine use 15 was added to disclose information to other Federal 
agencies that may be made to assist such agencies in preventing and 
detecting possible fraud or abuse by individuals in their operations 
and programs.
    Routine use 16 was added so that the VA may, on its own initiative, 
disclose any information or records to appropriate agencies, entities, 
and persons when (1) VA suspects or has confirmed that the integrity or 
confidentiality of information in the system of records has been 
compromised; (2) the Department has determined that as a result of the 
suspected or confirmed compromise, there is a risk of embarrassment or 
harm to the reputations of the record subjects, harm to economic or 
property interests, identity theft or fraud, or harm to the security, 
confidentiality, or integrity of this system or other systems or 
programs (whether maintained by the Department or another agency or 
entity) that rely upon the potentially compromised information; and (3) 
the disclosure is to agencies, entities, or persons whom VA determines 
are reasonably necessary to assist or carry out the Department's 
efforts to respond to the suspected or confirmed compromise and 
prevent, minimize, or remedy such harm. This routine use permits 
disclosures by the Department to respond to a suspected or confirmed 
data breach, including the conduct of any risk analysis or provision of 
credit protection services as provided in 38 U.S.C. 5724, as the terms 
are defined in 38 U.S.C. 5727.
    Routine use 17 was added so that the VA may disclose on its own 
initiative any information in the system, except the names and home 
addresses of veterans and their dependents, that is relevant to a 
suspected or reasonably imminent violation of the law whether civil, 
criminal, or regulatory in nature and whether arising by general or 
program statute or by regulation, rule, or order issued pursuant 
thereto, to a Federal, State, local, tribal, or foreign agency charged 
with the responsibility of investigating or prosecuting such violation, 
or charged with enforcing or implementing the statute, regulation, 
rule, or order. VA may also disclose on its own initiative the names 
and addresses of veterans and their dependents to a Federal agency 
charged with the responsibility of investigating or prosecuting civil, 
criminal, or regulatory violations of law, or charged with enforcing or 
implementing the statute, regulation, or order issued pursuant thereto.

    Approved: March 25, 2009.
John R. Gingrich,
Chief of Staff, Department of Veterans Affairs.
90VA194

SYSTEM NAME:
    Call Detail Records--VA.

SYSTEM LOCATION:
    Records are maintained at Veterans Health Administration (VHA) 
facilities. Address locations for Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) 
facilities are listed in VA Appendix 1 of the biennial publication of 
VA's systems of records.

CATEGORIES OF INDIVIDUALS COVERED BY THE SYSTEM:
    Individuals who are assigned VHA telephone numbers or are 
authorized to use VHA telephone services, and individuals who receive 
or make calls billed to VHA.

Categories of records in the system:
    Call detail records consist of information on Federal 
Telecommunication System (FTS) telephone calls placed from VHA 
telephones or otherwise billed to VHA including the originating and 
destination telephone numbers; States and cities called; date and time 
of call; duration of each call; cost of call; name and title of caller; 
request number; account code; deactivation code; authorization code 
records indicating the assignment of telephone numbers to organizations 
and individuals; and the organizational location of telephones.

Authority for maintenance of the system:
    Title 38, United States Code, section 501.

PURPOSE(S):
    The records are used to generate call detail records; to verify 
telephone usage; to allocate costs of telephone services to individual 
users; to identify unofficial telephone calls; and to justify action 
when individuals misuse or abuse VA telephone services.

Routine uses of records maintained in the system, including categories 
of users and the purposes of such uses:
    To the extent that records contained in the system include 
information protected by 45 CFR parts 160 and 164, (i.e., individually 
identifiable health information, and 38 U.S.C. 7332), (i.e., medical 
treatment information related to drug abuse, alcoholism or alcohol 
abuse, sickle cell anemia or infection with the human immunodeficiency 
virus), that information cannot be disclosed under a routine use unless 
there is also specific statutory authority in 38 U.S.C. 7332 and 
regulatory authority in 45 CFR parts 160 and 164 permitting disclosure.
    1. Disclosure may be made to individuals to determine their 
responsibility for telephone calls.
    2. Disclosure may be made to another Federal agency or a 
telecommunications company providing telephone services to permit 
maintenance and repair of the account.
    3. Information from this system of records may be disclosed to a 
congressional office from the record of an individual in response to an 
inquiry from the congressional office made on behalf of that 
individual.
    4. Disclosure may be made to the National Archives and Records 
Administration (NARA) or to the General Services Administration (GSA) 
for records management inspections under Title 44 of United States 
Code.
    5. Disclosure may be made at VA's initiative to the appropriate 
Federal, State, or local agency responsible for investigating, 
prosecuting, enforcing, or implementing a statute, rule, regulation, or 
order, where the agency becomes aware of an indication of a violation 
or potential violation of civil or criminal law or regulation.
    6. 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 conducting of a security or suitability investigation of 
an individual, the reporting of an investigation, the letting of a 
grant or other benefit, to the extent that the information is relevant 
and necessary to the requesting agency's decision on the matter.

[[Page 17285]]

    7. Records from this system of records may be disclosed in a 
proceeding before a court, adjudicative body, or other administrative 
body when the Agency, or any Agency component or employee (in his or 
her official capacity as a VA employee), is a party to litigation; when 
the Agency determines that litigation is likely to affect the Agency, 
any of its components or employees, or the United States has an 
interest in the litigation, and such records are deemed to be relevant 
and necessary to the legal proceedings; provided that the disclosure is 
compatible with the purpose for which the records were collected.
    8. Disclosure of relevant information may be made to individuals, 
organizations, private or public agencies, etc., with whom VA has a 
contract or agreement to perform such services as VA may deem 
practicable for the purposes of laws administered by VA, in order for 
the contractor or subcontractor to perform the services of the contract 
or agreement.
    9. Disclosure may be made to officials of labor organizations 
recognized under 5 U.S.C. chapter 71 when relevant and necessary to 
their duties of exclusive representation concerning personnel policies, 
practices, and matters affecting working conditions.
    10. Disclosure may be made to the VA-appointed representative of an 
employee, including all notices, determinations, decisions, or other 
written communications issued to the employee in connection with an 
examination ordered by VA under medical evaluation (formerly fitness-
for-duty) examination procedures or Department-filed disability 
retirement procedures.
    11. Disclosure may be made to officials of the Merit Systems 
Protection Board, including the Office of the Special Counsel, when 
requested in connection with appeals, special studies of the civil 
service and other merit systems, review of rules and regulations, 
investigation of alleged or possible prohibited personnel practices, 
and such other functions, promulgated in 5 U.S.C. 1205 and 1206, or as 
may be authorized by law.
    12. Disclosure may be made to the Equal Employment Opportunity 
Commission when requested in connection with investigations of alleged 
or possible discrimination practices, examination of Federal 
affirmative employment programs, compliance with the Uniform Guidelines 
of Employee Selection Procedures, or other functions vested in the 
Commission by the President's Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1978.
    13. Disclosure may be made to the Federal Labor Relations 
Authority, including its General Counsel, when requested in connection 
with investigation and resolution of allegations of unfair labor 
practices, in connection with the resolution of exceptions to 
arbitrator awards when a question of material fact is raised and 
matters before the Federal Service Impasses Panel.
    14. VA may disclose information from this system of records to the 
Department of Justice (DoJ), either on VA's initiative or in response 
to DoJ's request for the information, after either VA or DoJ determines 
that such information is relevant to DoJ's representation of the United 
States or any of its components in legal proceedings before a court or 
adjudicative body, provided that, in each case, the agency also 
determines prior to disclosure that release of the records to the DoJ 
is a use of the information contained in the records that is compatible 
with the purpose for which VA collected the records. VA, on its own 
initiative, may disclose records in this system of records in legal 
proceedings before a court or administrative body after determining 
that the disclosure of the records to the court or administrative body 
is a use of the information contained in the records that is compatible 
with the purpose for which VA collected the records.
    15. Disclosure to other Federal agencies may be made to assist such 
agencies in preventing and detecting possible fraud or abuse by 
individuals in their operations and programs.
    16. VA may, on its own initiative, disclose any information or 
records to appropriate agencies, entities, and persons when (1) VA 
suspects or has confirmed that the integrity or confidentiality of 
information in the system of records has been compromised; (2) the 
Department has determined that as a result of the suspected or 
confirmed compromise, there is a risk of embarrassment or harm to the 
reputations of the record subjects, harm to economic or property 
interests, identity theft or fraud, or harm to the security, 
confidentiality, or integrity of this system or other systems or 
programs (whether maintained by the Department or another agency or 
entity) that rely upon the potentially compromised information; and (3) 
the disclosure is to agencies, entities, or persons whom VA determines 
are reasonably necessary to assist or carry out the Department's 
efforts to respond to the suspected or confirmed compromise and 
prevent, minimize, or remedy such harm. This routine use permits 
disclosures by the Department to respond to a suspected or confirmed 
data breach, including the conduct of any risk analysis or provision of 
credit protection services as provided in 38 U.S.C. 5724, as the terms 
are defined in 38 U.S.C. 5727.
    17. VA may disclose on its own initiative any information in the 
system, except the names and home addresses of veterans and their 
dependents, that is relevant to a suspected or reasonably imminent 
violation of the law whether civil, criminal, or regulatory in nature 
and whether arising by general or program statute or by regulation, 
rule, or order issued pursuant thereto, to a Federal, State, local, 
tribal, or foreign agency charged with the responsibility of 
investigating or prosecuting such violation, or charged with enforcing 
or implementing the statute, regulation, rule, or order. VA may also 
disclose on its own initiative the names and addresses of veterans and 
their dependents to a Federal agency charged with the responsibility of 
investigating or prosecuting civil, criminal, or regulatory violations 
of law, or charged with enforcing or implementing the statute, 
regulation, or order issued pursuant thereto.

Disclosure to consumer reporting agencies:
    Pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552a(b)(12), VA may disclose records from this 
system to consumer reporting agencies as defined in the Fair Credit 
Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681a(f)) or the Federal Claims Collection Act 
of 1966 (31 U.S.C. 3701(a)(3)).

Policies and practices for storing, retrieving, accessing, retaining, 
and disposing of records in the system:
Storage:
    Records are maintained on electronic media (hard disk and floppy 
disks) and paper.

Retrievability:
    Records may be retrieved by name, authorization code, VA 
organizational unit, originating telephone number, destination 
telephone number, location code, date, time, cost, and/or duration of 
call.

Safeguards:
    1. Access to telecommunication areas at health care facilities is 
generally limited by appropriate locking devices and restricted to 
authorized VA employees and vendor personnel. Generally, VA 
telecommunication areas are locked at all times and the facilities are 
protected from outside access by the Federal Protective Service or 
other security personnel.

[[Page 17286]]

    2. Access to file information or the user database is controlled by 
access codes. The system recognizes authorized VA employees by 
individually unique passwords or access codes. Contractors accessing 
the database remotely use encryption and access codes.

Retention and disposal:
    Records are maintained and disposed of in accordance with record 
disposition authority approved by the Archivist of the United States. 
Destruction of hard copy (paper) records is by shredding or burning or 
some other method that will macerate the record content. Working disks 
are erased as soon as the purpose for which they have been established 
has been served.

System manager(S) and address:
    Director, Implementation and Training Services, Communications 
Services Office (194D), Office of Information, State Route 9, Building 
307A, Martinsburg, West Virginia 25401.

Notification procedure:
    Individuals wishing to inquire whether this system of records 
contains information about themselves should contact the designated 
individual at the VHA facility where the records are maintained. 
Individuals must furnish the following information for their records to 
be located and identified: a. Full name; b. VA assigned telephone 
number or telephone service authorization number; and c. Description of 
information being sought, including the time frame of information being 
sought.

Record access procedure:
    Individuals wishing to request access to records about themselves 
should contact the designated individual at the VHA facility where the 
records are maintained. Individuals must furnish the following 
information for their records to be located and identified: a. Full 
name; b. VA assigned telephone number or telephone authorization 
number, and; c. Description of information being sought, including the 
time frame of information being sought. Individuals requesting access 
must also follow VA's Privacy Act regulations regarding verification of 
identify and access to records (38 CFR part 1).

Contesting record procedures:
    (See Record Access Procedures above.)

Record source categories:
    The information in this system of records is obtained from the 
following sources: a. Local VA telephone directories and other 
telephone assignment records; b. call detail records provided by 
suppliers of telephone services; and c. the individual on whom the 
record is maintained.

[FR Doc. E9-8448 Filed 4-13-09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8320-01-P