SORN 09-90-0095
System name: Management Information System Efficiency Reporter (MISER), HHS/ASPER/OHR.
Security classification: None.
System location: Computer files are stored at these locations: (1) Division of Computer Research and Technology, National Institutes of Health, Building 12-A, Bethesda, Maryland 20205 and (2) Social Security Administration (SSA), EEO Office, 811 Altmeyer Building, 6401 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, Maryland 21235. Paper files may be stored at the above locations as well as at the Management Information and Operations Support Staff Unit, Room 2412, Switzer Building, 330 C Street, SW, Washington, DC 20201.
Categories of individuals covered by the system: Applicants for employment and current or former employees, who have a formal grievance, grievance reconsideration, merit system/
prohibited personnel practice complaint, or EEO complaint against the agency or agency official investigators, examiners, contractors, and/or clerical support personnel, who are involved in case processing.
Categories of records in the system: The automated and manual system consists of a variety of records pertaining to EEO complaints, HHS grievances, grievance reconsiderations, investigations of merit systems violations and prohibited personnel practices. In addition to the employees name
as a personal identifier, this system includes information such as Social Security account number, position title, grade, and series, organizational locations; race, sex, type of case; issue; basis;
action on case; dates filed and received; processing events; names of staff involved in case processing and weekly, monthly, and yearly production data. These records also include documentary and physical evidence, correspondence, information from personnel files, affidavits, investigative reports, analytical papers, computer discs, tapes, and hard copy reports. The system includes EEO--case racking data of other components.
Authority for maintenance of the system: Executive Order 11478, 42 U.S.C. 200e 29 U.S.C. 833a, 5 U.S.C. 1302, 3301, 3302, Executive Order 10577, Executive Order 11767.
Purpose(s):
Information in this system of records is used in locating problem areas for personnel management evaluation, analyzing causes of lowered morale among Department employees, recommending policy
regarding investigation and processing of complaints, case management and control, human resources planning, and to document investigations of merit systems and prohibited personnel practices complaints.
Routine uses of records maintained in the system, including categories of users and the purposes of such uses:
Disclosures may be made:
- To a congressional office from the record of an individual in response to an inquiry from the congressional office made at the request of that individual.
- To the Department of Justice for the purpose of obtaining its advice, when desirable or necessary, to determine whether particular records are required to be disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act.
- In the event of litigation where the defendant is (a) The Department of Health and Human Service (HHS), any component of HHS or any employee of HHS in his or her official capacity; (b) the United States where HHS determines that the claim, is successful, is likely to directly affect the operations of HHS or any of its components; or (c) any HHS employee in his or her individual capacity where the Justice Department has agreed to represent such employee. HHS may disclose such record as it deems desirable or necessary to the Department of Justice to enable that Department to present an effective defense, provided such disclosure is compatible with the purpose for which the records were collected.
- To Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to refine the complaints processing procedure and to provide technical assistance to Federal agencies the Departments as it relates to the efficiency and effectiveness of their complaints systems.
- To the Office of Management and Budget to make a detailed and accurate assessment of the complaint program's cost effectiveness.
- To the Merit Systems Protection Board (including its Office of the Special Counsel) to investigate alleged violations of merit system principles.
- 7. To the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to carry out personnel management evaluations.
- 8. Records may be disclosed to student volunteers, individuals working under a personal services contract, and other individuals performing functions for the Department but technically not having the status of agency employees, if they need access to the records in order to perform their assigned agency functions.
Policies and practices for storing, retrieving, accessing, retaining, and disposing of records in the system:
Storage: Magnetic tapes, disks, cassette tapes, bound notebooks, paper forms, and index cards in locked file cabinets.
Retrievability: Information is retrieved by names, docket numbers, or other data elements (e.g., type of case, organizational unit, dates).
Safeguards: Safeguards are established in accordance with Part 6, ADP Systems Manual. Access to and use of these records is limited to those persons whose official duties require such access. Records are kept in locked files or a locked room. Data stored in the automated system is accessed through the use of passwords known only to authorized personnel.
Retention and disposal: Manual and automated records are destroyed by shredding or erasing after periods varying from one to five years after resolution or final disposition of the complaint or grievance.
System manager(s) and address: Director, Office of Human Relations, Room 508-E, Hubert H. Humphrey Building, 200 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20201.
Notification procedure: Exempt. However, consideration will be given to requests addressed to the System Manager.
Record access procedures: Same as notification procedures. Requesters should also reasonably specify the record being sought.
Contesting record procedures: Exempt. However, consideration will be given to a request written to the system manager. Request should specify the information to be contested, and state the corrective action sought and the justification for the correction.
Record source categories: Information is either provided by the individual to whom EEO complaint, grievance, grievance reconsideration, merit system and prohibited personnel practice complaints apply; derived from information supplied by others; or is supplied by documents related to the investigation. Record sources may include a confidential source.
Systems exempted from certain provisions of the act: Records in the system of records will be exempt from the provisions of the Privacy Act concerning: Making the accounting of certain disclosures available; providing notification access and amendment; and the corresponding provisions of the Department's Privacy Act regulation (45 CFR part 5b). This exemption is based on 5
U.S.C. 552a(k)(2).