§5.21. Requests for access to records. — Inbound Citations

(a) Unless the record is not subject to amendment or correction as stated in paragraph (f) of this section, an individual may make a request for amendment or correction of a record of the Department about that individual by writing directly to the component that maintains the record, following the procedures in § 5.21. The request should identify each record in question, state the amendment or correction requested, and state the reason why the requester believes that the record is not accurate, relevant, timely, or complete. The requester may submit any documentation that the requester thinks would support the request. If the individual believes that the same record is in more than one system of records, the requester should state that and address the request to each component that maintains a system of records containing the record.

(a) Except where accountings of disclosures are not required to be kept (as stated in paragraph (b)(1) of this section), an individual may make a request for an accounting of any disclosure that has been made by the Department to another person, organization, or agency of any record about the requester. This accounting contains the date, nature, and purpose of each disclosure, as well as the name and address of the person, organization, or agency to which the disclosure was made. A request for an accounting should identify each record in question and should be made by writing directly to the Department component that maintains the record, following the procedures in § 5.21.

(b) Consistent with the procedures in subpart A of this part, a component will acknowledge the request and assign it an individualized tracking number if it will take longer than ten (10) working days to process. Components will include in the acknowledgement letter a brief description of the records sought to allow requesters to more easily keep track of their requests. Further, in the acknowledgment letter, the component will confirm the requester's agreement to pay fees under §§ 5.21(d) and 5.29.