tive authority may, as an integral part of their authority, direct that a specific action be taken, or corrected, or canceled in order to comply with law, policy, regulation, or procedure.

b. The basic function of the civilian personnel office in carrying out the civilian personnel function (outside of those phases which are primarily administrative) is that of advice and assistance to management in meeting its personnel needs, solving personnel problems, and assuring that all programs and actions comply fully with the spirit and intent of governing laws, regulations, policies, and principles. The commander, therefore, will designate the chief of the central civilian personnel office to act for him in approving and issuing the required notices of personnel and position action in accordance with AFR 40-104. A detailed statement of the functions, authority, and responsibilities of the civilian personnel office is also contained in AFR 40-104, The Central Civilian Personnel Office. (AFR 40-104 is pending publication.)

c. The immediate supervisor is in the best position to know individual employees and their jobs and has the best knowledge of individual problems and mission requirements. Supervisors must have the authority required to solve their personnel problems and carry out their assigned management responsibilities. Commanders to whom appointing authority has been delegated will, therefore, redelegate authority for personnel management functions to the lowest practical level of supervision. Where required by governing regulations, actions taken or proposed must be coordinated with or approved by higher level supervisors and/or the central civilian personnel office. These supervisory personnel management responsibilities include, as a minimum:

(1) Selection of personnel and their proper placement and utilization, including recommendation for promotion and reassignment.

(2) Assignment of duties and responsibilities and certification of the accuracy of position descriptions.

BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF THE AIR FORCE:

(3) Establishment of job requirements, the continuous evaluation of individual performance and conduct and, based on performance evaluation, taking or initiating corrective action when necessary, and recognizing and recommending special recognition where warranted by superior performance.

(4) Identification of training needs conduct of on-the-job training, and recommendation for attendance at other training.

(5) Resolution of grievances and maintenance of discipline.

3. Assignment of Specific Authority and Responsibility. Other regulations in the 40 series contain specific statements of authority and responsibility as appropriate for the particular subject matter program. Where the authority and responsibility are associated with or result from the assignment of legal authority to appoint, promote, demote, reassign, or separate civilian employees, the regulation will state that the authority is delegated to "commanders of organizations to which central civilian personnel officers are assigned." Other authorities and responsibilities are assigned to line management and follow the normal chain of command. Where this is true, the regulation will refer to "commander," i.e., the officer in charge of a serviced activity who is the highest level of administrative authority within the serviced organization in a particular geographic area. The regulation will also state whether the authority can be redelegated and whether the commander can designate subordinate officials to act for him. In the absence of a statement which restricts delegation or designation of others to act for him, the commander may delegate his authority to any level he considers appropriate and may designate any appropriate subordinate to act for him. Certain legal or regulatory authorities may be assigned only to certain positions and/or to specific organizations or organizational levels. These delegations or designations will be explained in the appropriate regulation.

OFFICIAL:

R. J. PUGH

Colonel, USAF

Director of Administrative Services

CURTIS E. LeMAY Chief of Staff

AIR FORCE REGULATION NO. 40-202

AFR 40-202

DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE Washington, 1 February 1963

1. Responsibilities:

a. Commanders designate civilian positions under their jurisdiction as sensitive when they meet the criteria in paragraph 3. Commanders may redelegate this authority, but must not delegate it to civilian personnel officers except for positions they supervise. (See paragraph 3, AFR 40-102, for description of "commanders.")

b. Supervisors identify positions which meet the criteria of paragraph 3, initiate AF Forms 309, "Designation of Civilian Positions as Sensitive," and maintain the records as prescribed in paragraph 4.

2. Designation of Positions as Sensitive:

a. The supervisor initiates AF Form 309, "Designation of Civilian Positions as Sensitive" (see attachment 1), for each position that meets the criteria of paragraph 3. The official authorized to make the designation signs the AF Form 309. Each supervisor must have an approved AF Form 309 for each basic position in his organization which is designated sensitive.

b. The commander must require periodic review of each position designated as sensitive and must cancel its designation as a sensitive position if the duties do not warrant its retention in that category.

c. A sensitive position must be redesignated as nonsensitive when the duties and responsibilities of the position no longer fall within the provisions of paragraph 3. A position must NOT be redesignated nonsensitive in order to fill it prior to completion of the required investigation.

d. The supervisor furnishes the information regarding position sensitivity to the central civilian personnel office as required by AFR 40-201. The supervisor initiates a new AF Form 309 to record a change in designation and, when it is approved, reports the change, in writing, to the central civilian personnel office. In addition, each request for position or personnel action must include position sensitivity information (see AFR 40-201).

3. Sensitive Positions. A sensitive position is any position within the Air Force, the occupant of which could bring about, by virtue of the nature of the position, an adverse effect on the national security. (The term "national security" relates to those activities of the Government that are directly concerned with the protection of the nation from internal subversion or foreign aggression, but not those which contribute to the strength of the nation only through their impact on the general welfare.) A sensitive position may be one of two types; viz., a critical-sensitive or a noncritical-sensitive position.

a. Critical-sensitive positions include:

(1) Any position occupied by a civilian employee (including clerks, typists, and stenographers assisting such persons) which involves responsibility for:

(a) developing or approving war plans, (b) developing or approving plans or particulars of future major or special operations of

war,

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programs which affect the over-all operations of the Department of Defense or the Department of the Air Force.

(2) Any position:

(a) requiring access to TOP SECRET defense information or material,

(b) involving responsibility for granting personnel security clearances or otherwise passing officially upon persons against whom there is information indicating their employment may not be clearly consistent with the interests of the national security,

(c) at grade GS-14 and above, or salary equivalent, not otherwise covered in (1) above. (When appointment to a position compensated at a salary equivalent to grade GS-14 or above is limited to 90 days or less, the position is not considered as sensitive unless covered under other provisions of this paragraph.)

b. Noncritical-sensitive positions include any position, the duties of which require:

(1) access to CONFIDENTIAL or SECRET defense information or material,

(2) performance of functions within the Department of the Air Force program for the information, education, and orientation of personnel, including the training of other individuals for the performance of such functions,

(3) responsibility for the development of public relations programs or for authorizing the release of information to the public,

(4) work by an individual within the office, shop, laboratory, or other similar location where classified work is in progress,

BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF THE AIR FORCE

(5) frequent access by an individual to restricted areas as defined in AFR 205-5,

(6) work by an individual in or on other sensitive locations such as fuel storage areas, fuel hydrant areas, navigational aids sites, fire departments, crash rescue departments, water works, heavy equipment pools, power stations, electric transformer sites, weather stations, telephone exchanges, antenna sites, and storage areas where important materiel is either processed or stored, and where the duties afford the individual an opportunity to commit acts of espionage or sabotage.

4. Records of Position Sensitivity:

a. Approved current AF Form 309 for each sensitive position is retained with the supervisor's file of AF Forms 971. (See AFR 40-213.)

b. The supervisors must destroy superseded AF Forms 309 and forms for abolished positions unless security case files are being processed under AFR 40-12. In these instances the supervisors retain the original AF Forms 309 pending instructions from the central civilian personnel office.

c. Copies of AF Forms 309 are not submitted to or retained in the central civilian personnel office, except for positions in that office. Designations of position sensitivity are not posted on any record or file maintained by the central civilian personnel office (except on the AF Form 308, "Record of Requirements for Assignment of Civilians to Sensitive Positions," as provided in AFM 40-2). Any required reports on numbers of sensitive positions or similar matters are based on the supervisors' files of AF Forms 309.

OFFICIAL

R. J. PUGH

Colonel, USAF

Director of Administrative Services

CURTIS E. LeMAY Chief of Staff

1 Attachment AF Form 309

1. Authority for This Regulation. The following two documents constitute the authority for this regulation: Executive Order 10450, 27 April 1953, as amended (18 F.R. 2489), reprinted in the Federal Personnel Manual, Chapter ZI; Department of Defense Directive 5210.7, 12 August 1953, as amended.

2. Explanation of Terms. For the purpose of this regulation, the following terms apply:

a. Monitoring Headquarters The major air command, or its designee, responsible for controlling requisitions for Stateside recruitment to fill oversea vacancies. (See Chapter 0-1, AFM 40-1.)

b. National Agency Check (NAC)—A Civil Service Commission review of pertinent Federal agency records for certain facts bearing upon the loyalty and trustworthiness of an individual.

c. Written Inquiries Requests in writing by the Civil Service Commission (or by the Air Force "Agent Installations" for oversea and foreign area positions as prescribed in Chapter 0-1, AFM 40-1) for pertinent information from law enforcement agencies, former employers and supervisors, references, and schools.

d. National Agency Check with Written Inquiries (NACI)-A combination of b and c above.

e. Background Investigation (BI)-An investigation conducted by personnel of the Office of Special Investigations to obtain full facts on the background and activities of an individual so that a determination can be made as to whether his employment is consistent with the interest of national security. A BI as defined in AFR 205-6 includes an NAC.

f. Full Field Investigation.-An investigation conducted by a United States governmental

agency under Executive Order 10450. This type of investigation is normally the equivalent of a background investigation by the Air Force.

g. Preappointment Investigation-Pertains to any investigation which must be completed before assignment.

3. Investigative Requirements. Executive Order 10450, as amended, and Chapter I-2, Federal Personnel Manual, require that certain types of investigations be completed with satisfactory results for all civilians appointed to sensitive and nonsensitive positions in the executive branch of the Government. Attachments 1-4 establish the investigative requirements to be met for assignment to or retention in any AF position. These requirements may be modified as follows:

a. Commander Authority. A commander may require that any investigation be completed before the applicant enters on duty or before an employee is assigned more sensitive duties. If this higher requirement is established, the charts should be changed accordingly.

b. In Case of Emergency. In case of emergency the position may be filled for a limited period (as indicated in the attached charts) before completion of certain preappointment investigations, if the action is necessary in the interest of national defense. Each major air commander is authorized to determine whether an emergency exists warranting such action. This authority may be delegated to members of his immediate staff and to such subordinate commanders as he determines appropriate (see AFR 40-102). It may not be redelegated, but commanders to whom the authority is delegated may designate members of their immediate staffs to approve the determinations for them. The determination of an emergency will be in writing and will be

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