TSA Issues Guidance on Making Voluntary Disclosures of Apparent Violations of TSA Regulations

(It should be noted that the TSA Voluntary Disclosure program does not apply to violations or apparent violations committed by individuals other than individuals as agents of covered regulated entities.)

TSA explains that disclosing parties will receive a letter of correction in lieu of civil penalty actions where appropriate for covered instances of noncompliance that are voluntarily disclosed to TSA in accordance with the procedures set forth in the policy directive.

Five Conditions for Voluntary Disclosure

TSA states that in evaluating whether an apparent violation is covered by this voluntary disclosure policy, the following five conditions should be met:

The disclosing party has notified TSA of the apparent violation immediately after detecting it and before the agency has learned of it by other means;

The apparent violation was inadvertent;

The apparent violation does not indicate a lack or reasonable question of qualification or training on the part of the reporting entity;

Immediate action satisfactory to TSA was taken upon discovery to terminate the conduct that resulted in the apparent violation; and

The disclosing party has developed or is developing a corrective action and schedule of implementation satisfactory to TSA. The corrective action plan includes a follow-up self-inspection to ensure that the action taken corrects the noncompliance. This self-inspection is in addition to any inspections conducted by TSA.

Highlights of Procedures for Voluntarily Disclosing Apparent Violations to TSA

The TSA states that the following procedures are among those that must be followed when applying the Voluntary Disclosure policy (see policy directive for complete details):

Initial Notification to TSA. This program applies only when a disclosing party notifies the TSA of the apparent violation immediately after discovery and before TSA learns of the apparent violation by some other means. This initial notification should be made as soon as practicable but no later than 24 hours after discovery.

Among other things, the notification must acknowledge that a detailed written report will be provided to the TSA's principal inspector within 10 days (see below).

TSA's response to initial notification. The TSA's principal inspector or other designated TSA official will respond with a written acknowledgement of the initial notification from the reporting entity. This acknowledgement will include the request for a written report.

Among other actions, the principal inspector or other designated TSA official will issue a letter of investigation (LOI) soliciting evidence that establishes whether the reporting entity has satisfied the criteria of the Voluntary Disclosure program.

Disclosing party's written report. Among other information that must be included in the written report, a detailed description of a proposed corrective action plan outlining planned corrective steps, the delegation of responsibilities for implementing those corrective steps, and a time schedule for completion of the plan. TSA's policy directive contains a sample format for this report in Appendix A.

Review and implementation of corrective action plan. The TSA will work with the disclosing party to ensure that the corrective action plan is acceptable to the TSA. The policy directive outlines the steps that are to be taken during implementation of the corrective action plan and sets forth the TSA's monitoring and assessment of the implementation.

(See ITT's Online Archives or 05/04/04 news, 04050405, for BP summary of TSA's policy directive on sanctions guidance for indirect air carriers.)

TSA Policy Directive on Voluntary Sanctions Program available athttp://www.tsa.gov/interweb/assetlibrary/VoluntaryDisclosure.doc