At any time during the course of development of a claim for benefits under Part E, OWCP may determine that it needs relevant information to adjudicate the claim. When this occurs, and at the request of OWCP, DOE and/or any contractor who employed a Department of Energy contractor employee must provide to OWCP information or documents in response to the request in connection with a claim under Part E of EEOICPA.
(a) The party to whom the request is made must respond to OWCP within 90 days of the request with either:
(1) The requested information or documents; or
(2) A sworn statement that a good faith search for the requested information or documents was conducted, and that the information or documents could not be located.
(b) DOE and/or the DOE contractor who employed a Department of Energy contractor employee must query third parties under its control to acquire the requested information or documents.
(c) In providing the requested information or documents, DOE and/or the DOE contractor who employed a DOE contractor employee must preserve the current organization of the requested information or documents, and must provide such description and indexing of the requested information or documents as OWCP considers appropriate to facilitate their use by OWCP.
(d) Information or document requests may include, but are not limited to, requests for records, files and other data, whether paper, electronic, imaged or otherwise, developed, acquired or maintained by DOE or the DOE contractor who employed a DOE contractor employee. Such information or documents may include records, files and data on facility industrial hygiene, employment of individuals or groups, exposure and medical records, and claims applications.