792.51—Procedures.
(a) Mandatory review.
All declassification requests made by a member of the public, by a government employee or by an agency shall be handled by the Chief Financial Officer or the Chief Financial Officer's designee. Under no circumstances shall the Chief Financial Officer refuse to confirm the existence or nonexistence of a document under the Freedom of Information Act or the mandatory review provisions of other applicable law, unless the fact of its existence or nonexistence would itself be classifiable under applicable law. Although NCUA has no authority to classify or declassify information, it occasionally handles information classified by another agency. The Chief Financial Officer shall refer all declassification requests to the agency that originally classified the information. The Chief Financial Officer or the Chief Financial Officer's designee shall notify the requesting person or agency that the request has been referred to the originating agency and that all further inquiries and appeals must be made directly to the other agency.
(b) Handling and safeguarding national security information.
All information classified “Top Secret,” “Secret,” and “Confidential” shall be delivered to the Chief Financial Officer or the Chief Financial Officer's designee immediately upon receipt. The Chief Financial Officer shall advise those who may come into possession of such information of the name of the current designee. If the Chief Financial Officer is unavailable, the designee shall lock the documents, unopened, in the combination safe located in the Office of Chief Financial Officer. If the Chief Financial Officer or the designee is unavailable to receive such documents, the documents shall be delivered to the Chief Financial Officer of the Office of Human Resources who shall lock them, unopened, in the combination safe in the Office of Human Resources. Under no circumstances shall classified materials that cannot be delivered to the Chief Financial Officer be stored other than in the two designated safes.
(c) Storage.
All classified documents shall be stored in the combination safe located in the Chief Financial Officer's Office, except as provided in paragraph (b) of this section. The combination shall be known only to the Chief Financial Officer and the Chief Financial Officer's designee holding the proper security clearance.
This memo shall describe NCUA procedures for handling, reproducing and storing classified documents. The Chief Financial Officer shall require each such employee to review Executive Order 12356.
(e) Agency terminology.
The National Credit Union Administration's Central Office shall use the terms “Top Secret,” “Secret” or “Confidential” only in relation to materials classified for national security purposes.