System name:
Office of Minority Health Grants Records System, HHS/OASH/OMH.
Security classification:
None.
System location:
Office of Minority Health, Rockwall II Building, Room 1102, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, Maryland 20857. A current list of contractor sites is available by writing to the address below under SYSTEM MANAGER. Inactive records are located at the Federal Records Center, 4205 Suitland Road, Suitland, Maryland 20746.
Categories of individuals covered by the system:
Project Grant Program Directors.
Categories of records in the system:
Grant files, including grant applications, grant award notices, summary comments of peer reviewers, salary information, staffing lists, general correspondence, and Social Security Numbers (optional).
Authority for maintenance of the system:
Public Health Service Act Section 301 (42 U.S.C. 242). This section authorizes support of health-related grants.
Purpose(s):
The information in this system is used to facilitate day-to-day grants management operations and for purposes of review, analysis, planning and policy formulation by OMH staff members and by other components of DHHS.
Routine uses of records maintained in the system, including categories of users and the purposes of such uses:
(1) Disclosure 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.
(2) The Department may disclose information from this system of records to the Department of Justice, to a court or other tribunal, when
(a) HHS, or any component thereof; or
(b) Any HHS employee in his or her official capacity; or
(c) Any HHS employee in his or her individual capacity where the Department of Justice (or HHS, where it is authorized to do so) has agreed to represent the employee; or
(d) The United States or any agency thereof where HHS determines that the litigation is likely to affect HHS or any of its components, is a party to litigation or has an interest in such litigation, and HHS determines that the use of such records by the Department of Justice, the court or other tribunal, is relevant and necessary to the litigation and would help in the effective representation of the governmental party, provided, however, that in each case, HHS determines that such disclosure is compatible with the purpose for which the records were collected.
(3) Disclosure may be made to a private firm for the purposes of providing services related to grant review, or for carrying out quality assessment, program evaluation, and/or management reviews. Any such contractors will be required to maintain Privacy Act safeguards with respect to such records.
(4) Disclosure may be made to qualified experts not within the definition of Department employees for opinions as a part of the application review and award process.
(5) Disclosure may be made to a Federal agency, in response to its request, in connection with the hiring or retention of an employee, the issuance of security clearance, the reporting of an investigation of an employee, the letting of a contract, or the issuance of a license, grant, or other benefit of the requesting agency, to the extent that the record is relevant and necessary to the requesting agency's decision on the matter.
(6) Where Federal agencies having power to subpoena other Federal agencies' records, such as the Internal Revenue Service or Civil Rights Commission, issue a subpoena to the Department for records in this system of records, the Department will make such records available.
(7) Disclosure may be made to the cognizant Audit Agency for auditing.
(8) In the event that a system of records maintained by the Department indicates a violation or potential violation of law, whether civil, criminal, or regulatory in nature, and whether arising by statute or by regulation, rule or order issued pursuant thereto, the relevant records in the system of records may be referred as a routine use, to the appropriate agency, whether Federal (e.g., the Department of Justice), or State (e.g., the State Attorney General's office) charged with the responsibility of investigating or prosecuting such violation or charged with enforcing or implementing the statute or rule, regulation or order issued pursuant thereto for litigation.
(9) Disclosure may be made to the grantee institution in connection with performance or administration under the terms and conditions of the award.
Policies and practices for storing, retrieving, accessing, retaining, and disposing of records in the system:
Storage:
Manual files (files folders).
Retrievability:
Retrievable by program director name and grant number.
Safeguards:
1. Authorized Users: Only staff members of the Office of Minority Health (OMH) have regular access. Staff members of other DHHS components have access on a need-to-know basis only.
2. Physical Safeguards: Locked file cabinets, locked offices, general building security.
3. Procedural Safeguards: OMH staff may inspect and review records, with the approval of Grant Management Branch staff. Other DHHS staff will be granted access by the System manager only on a need-to-know basis. Visitors will not be left unattended in the office containing the files. Grant records are either transmitted in sealed envelopes or are hand-carried.
Retention and disposal:
Approved grant applications and their respective files are retained by OMH for one year beyond the termination date of the project. Disapproved grant applications are held for six months. The grant files are then retired to a Federal Records Center and subsequently disposed of in accordance with the PHS/OASH records control schedule. The records control schedule may be obtained by writing to the System Manager at the following address.
System manager(s) and address:
Grants Management Officer, Office of Minority Health, PHS, Room 1102, Rockwall II Building, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20857.
Notification procedure:
To determine if a record exists, write to the System Manager at the above address. Specify program director's name and/or grant number.
Record access procedures:
Same as notification procedures. Requesters should also reasonably specify the record contents being sought. Positive identification is required. You may also request an accounting of disclosures that have been made of your record, if any.
Contesting record procedures:
Contact the official at the address specified under System Manager above and reasonably identify the record, specify the information being contested, the corrective action sought, and your reasons for requesting the correction, along with supporting information to show how the record is inaccurate, incomplete, untimely, or irrelevant.
Record source categories:
Grant applications, reports and correspondence from organizations interested in improving minority health, summary statements from grant review committees and incoming correspondence from project staff.
Systems exempted from certain provisions of the act:
None.
