Title 38

SECTION 1.603

1.603 Disqualification.

§ 1.603 Disqualification.

(a) The Regional Office Director or the Regional Office Director's designee may revoke an individual's or an organization's access privileges to a particular claimant's records because the individual or organization no longer represents the claimant, and, therefore, the beneficiary's consent is no longer in effect. The individual or organization is no longer entitled to access as a matter of law under the Privacy Act, 5 U.S.C. 552a, and 38 U.S.C. 5701 and 7332. Under these circumstances, the individual or organization is not entitled to any hearing or to present any evidence in opposition to the revocation.

(b) The Regional Office Director or the Regional Office Director's designee may revoke an individual's or an organization's access privileges either to an individual claimant's records or to all claimants' records in the VBA automated claims benefits systems if the individual or organization:

(1) Violates any of the provisions of §§ 1.600 through 1.603;

(2) Accesses or attempts to access data for a purpose other than representation of an individual veteran;

(3) Accesses or attempts to access data other than the data specified in these regulations;

(4) Accesses or attempts to access data on a VA beneficiary who is not represented either by the individual who obtains access or by the organization employing the individual who obtains access;

(5) Utilizes unapproved computer hardware or software to obtain or attempt to obtain access to VBA computer systems;

(6) Modifies or attempts to modify data in the VBA computer systems.

(c) If VBA is considering revoking an individual's access under § 1.603(b), and that individual works for an organization, the Regional Office of jurisdiction will notify the organization of the pendency of the action.

(d) After an individual's access privileges are revoked, if the conduct which resulted in revocation was such that it merits reporting to an appropriate governmental licensing organization such as a State bar, the VBA Regional Office of jurisdiction will immediately inform the licensing organization in writing of the fact that the individual's access privileges were revoked and the reasons why.

(e) The VBA Regional Office of jurisdiction may temporarily suspend access privileges prior to any determination on the merits of the proposed revocation where the Regional Office Director or the Director's designee determines that such immediate suspension is necessary in order to protect the integrity of the system or confidentiality of the data in the system from a reasonably foreseeable compromise. However, in such case, the Regional Office shall offer the individual or organization an opportunity to respond to the charges immediately after the temporary suspension.

[59 FR 47084, Sept. 14, 1994. Redesignated and amended at 73 FR 29870, 29879, May 22, 2008]

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