48VA40B

Categories of individuals covered by the system:
Deceased veterans.

Categories of records in the system:
Military Service data, applicant's name and address, place of burial, data on headstone or marker, and consignee's name, address and phone number.

Authority for maintenance of the system:
Pub. L. 93-43 dated June 18, 1973 ``National Cemeteries Act of 1973.''

Routine uses of records maintained in the system, including categories of users and the purposes of such uses:

1. For use in connection with the issuance of a government headstone or marker in a National Cemetery or a private cemetery.
2. In the event that a system of records maintained by this agency to carry out its functions indicates a violation or potential violation of law, whether civil, criminal or regulatory in nature, and whether arising by general statute or particular program 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, State, local or foreign, 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.
3. A record from this system of records may be disclosed as a ``routine use'' to a foreign government allied with the U.S. during war, or a Federal, State or local agency maintaining civil, criminal or other pertinent information or military service data, if necessary to obtain information relevant to an agency decision concerning eligibility for burial or a reservation in a national cemetery or the issuance of a government headstone to mark a grave.
4. A record from this system of records may be disclosed to a Federal agency, in response to its request, in connection with the granting of a benefit to a veteran (including active duty personnel) or a dependent by the requesting agency, to the extent that the information is relevant and necessary to the requesting agency's decision on the matter.
5. 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.
6. Disclosure may be made to NARA (National Archives and Records Administration) GSA (General Services Administration) in records management inspections conducted under authority of 44 U.S.C. 2904 and 2906.

Policies and practices for storing, retrieving, accessing, retaining, and disposing of records in the system:

Storage:
Paper documents.

Retrievability:
Alphabetically by name.

Safeguards:
Released only to the person concerned (consignee) or family members upon receipt of proper identification.

Retention and disposal:
Retained indefinitely.

System manager(s) and address:
Director (40B), National Cemetery System, Veterans Administration Central Office, Washington, DC 20420.

Notification procedure:
Same as System Manager.

Record access procedures:
Same as System Manager.

Contesting record procedures:
See System Manager above.

Record source categories:
Family members of the deceased, official military records and VA claims records.

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