9.9.1. Employee Criminal Investigation Management Information System Responsibilities and Procedures

(1) See IRM 9.1.2, Authority for the delegated authority relating to 9.9.1.

(1)

(1) Special agents are responsible for updating CIMIS when an investigative action takes place for immediate review and approval by his/her manager. At management discretion, or in the event that the SA is off the CI network and cannot log into CIMIS in a timely manner, the SA will gather, analyze, and submit to designated support staff (i.e., SME, CSA, TFIA, etc.) the source documentation needed to input the investigative action into CIMIS. See subsections 9.9.1.4.8 through 9.9.1.4.10 for further descriptions of designated support staff and their responsibilities.

(2) Special agents are responsible for inputting their monthly activity into CIMIS, either through the “Upload Diary to CIMIS” activity or by entering the information manually through the “Add New 5043” activity, so that it is in the database no later than the second workday of the subsequent month. This policy helps ensure that management and HQ staff has the most accurate data available to them when running reports against the monthly snapshot.

(3) When SAs request approval to initiate an investigation of a subject who resides in another field office’s territory, the SA will prepare a memorandum for his/her SACs signature requesting concurrence of the other field office’s SAC to authorize an investigation of the subjects.

(1) Supervisory Special Agents and management officials are responsible for establishing employee access to the live database by working with the CIMIS SME/User Administrator to first register the employee as a CIMIS user in the OL5081 system and then create an appropriate user profile in CIMIS.

(2) The SSAs review and approve all requests for a PI with the exception of those initiated/developed:

1. by the NCIU;

2. by the SDC;

3. by the IDS unit;

4. with the charges for Title 18 USC §1956 and/or 18 USC §1957; and

5. with the charges for Title 31.

(3) The SSA, or his/her designee, will conduct a 100% review of all information entered into CIMIS for the initiation request of all SCIs. This review shall constitute the mandated initial CIMIS Accuracy Review and should be recorded as an Accuracy Review in CIMIS. Although Accuracy Reviews generally only involve twelve key fields of data, the initial managerial review must cover 100% of the entries. Once all data has been verified and is accurate, the SSA will forward to the SAC (through the ASAC if appropriate) if he/she decides that approval is warranted.

(4) The SSAs will review all discontinued investigations. The SSAs have the authority to approve discontinued PIs if they have been delegated that authority in their field office; however, they are not authorized to discontinue PIs if it involves a money laundering investigation. Additionally, the SSAs are not authorized to discontinue GIs or SCIs.

(5) The SSAs have the authority to approve discontinued PIs that were evaluated in his/her group and which were originally numbered as a PI in the NCIU, SDC or IDS.

(6) The SSAs and management officials have the option to approve the Monthly Activity Reports (Form 5043) or allow the SA to upload the information directly into CIMIS.

(1) Assistant Special Agents in Charge are to review all PI and SCI requests to initiate investigations. The authority to approve the initiation of PIs and SCIs, including 18 USC §1956 and/or 18 USC §1957 investigations or Title 31 investigations, may be delegated to the ASAC. This delegated authority should be recorded and stored in the field office files.

(2) Correspondingly, ASACs have the authority to approve discontinued PIs or SCIs, if they have been delegated the authority to approve them in their field office. The ASAC is not authorized to discontinue SCIs, if they involve 18 USC §1956 and/or 18 USC §1957 investigations or Title 31 investigations.

(1) Special Agents in Charge approve and date initiating requests for all types of investigations, as well as SIA. The approval date the SAC enters for the investigation in CIMIS is the authorized, or “approved for work”, date of the investigation. The authority to approve PIs and SCIs including Title 18 and 31 investigations may be redelegated to the ASAC. The authority to approve GIs and SIA may not be redelegated.

(2) The SAC or his/her designee ASAC has approval authority for investigations based upon alleged violations of 18 USC §1956 and/or 18 USC §1957 or alleged violations of Title 31.

(3) The SAC has the authority to authorize the discontinuance of all types of criminal investigations.

(4) The SAC will be responsible to ensure that investigations are numbered only on individuals and entities alleged to have violated statutes under the jurisdiction of the IRS.

(5) The SAC will request in writing, CI-HQ approval to initiate an investigation when an open investigation of an individual or entity already exists (i.e., “dual numbering”).

(6) The SAC will request concurrence to authorize an investigation of a subject(s) who resides in another field office's territory. This concurrence memorandum will be made part of the investigation's administrative file.

(7) The SAC is responsible for the accuracy of the employee and user profiles and to assure the profiles are updated as needed. At a minimum, on an annual basis, employee and user profiles will be reviewed and certified as accurate.

(1) The RAC is responsible for reviewing all QRP and RPP schemes to ensure that they meet referral criteria prior to initiating a PI and assigning the PI to a field office to be worked. The RAC is responsible for following up with the field office to ensure that the evaluation time frames are being followed.

(1) RESERVED.

(1) The Director, Field Operations must approve all SCIs and SIA involving sensitive individuals and entities such as clergy, politicians, attorneys, and accountants. (See IRM 9.4.1, Investigation Initiation).

(1) The CIMIS-SME in each field office is the primary point of contact for CIMIS issues within that field office. The SME will be the only individual with the ability to correct erroneous status code entries for investigations, as well as the ability to correct employees’ historical employee position and monthly activity report records. Additionally, the SME will be granted the permissions to perform normal editing of nearly all of the investigative and time reporting data that is originally entered by SAs or administrative support staff. The CIMIS-SME is to be the contact point for field office information requests.

(2) The SME will also function as the principal User Administrator for CIMIS in his/her respective field office or Director, Field Operations office. This duty entails advising potential users and their managers on what permissions to request; creating and editing user profiles with the appropriate roles; deactivating user profiles when applicable; and running user profile reports on an annual basis, or as needed by management to assist with OL5081 recertification.

(3) The CIMIS-SME will also be responsible for conducting CIMIS accuracy reviews. Annually, the CIMIS-SME must perform accuracy reviews on a sample basis – 25 percent of total SCIs (open and pipeline) in each group. It is suggested that the CIMIS-SME perform these reviews in conjunction with group administrative (Administrative Office) reviews. For each sampled investigation, the review should cover, at a minimum, the following 12 CIMIS entries:

1. TIN

2. CI Program Area

3. Grand Jury Code

4. Industry

5. Occupation

6. Source

7. Fraud Schemes/Criminal Activities

8. Provable Money Laundering Amount (if applicable)

9. Other Agencies

10. Total Criminal Deficiency (if applicable)

11. COP expiration date (if applicable)

12. COP terms met (if applicable)

(4) For each SCI reviewed, the CIMIS-SME is to review the source documents in TIMS and/or the hardcopy files (with the CSA, TFIA, SA, or SSA, if necessary) to verify the 12 fields. The CIMIS documentation is not to be used for verification. Depending on the outcome, an expanded review (beyond 25 percent) can be undertaken, if necessary.

(5) The CIMIS-SME will also be responsible for reviewing the aforementioned 12 fields for accuracy upon closing or discontinuance of all investigations, which will include verifying the information against the SAR, indictment, plea agreement, and/or JCO.

(6) Following each review, the CIMIS-SME or SSA will make an entry in the “Accuracy Review” section under “Review Comment”, listing the type of review conducted (i.e., Initial, 25 percent Sample, or Closing) and a brief mention of whatever corrections resulted from the review. If desired, further annotation can be made in the Accuracy Review activity to specify the documents reviewed in verifying the information (IDRS information, referral, grand jury documentation, SAR, JCO, etc.). In lieu of listing in the Review Comment all of the documentation reviewed, a statement can be made to refer to the TIMS folder for further information.

(1) The CIMIS staff at HQ is available to answer questions in regards to the preparation and input of investigative equipment, as well as personnel and Form 5043 information into CIMIS. The HQ-CIMIS staff, as data administrators, may make corrections and solve problems. Some CIMIS activities can only be done by the HQ-CIMIS staff, including but not limited to, the following areas:

1. The establishment or realignment of a group or branch.

2. The establishment or relocation of POD.

3. The establishment or realignment of field offices.

4. The shutdown of a POD.

5. The transfer of an investigation from one field office to another. This action must have the approval of both SACs involved in the transfer.

6. Enable the numbering of dual investigations. The system will display a message to alert the agent when initiating an investigation if an open investigation already exists on an individual or entity. The HQ-CIMIS staff, upon receiving authorization from CI:OPS, will make the appropriate entries in CIMIS.

7. Reactivate/reinstate CI employee profiles when occurring in a different organization from where they were terminated.

8. Handle ad hoc reporting and specialized data requests.

9. Add and/or modify tracking information reference values in the database (e.g., violations, fraud scheme/criminal activities, skills, etc.).

(1) Employees in various professional staff positions may assist SAs and SSAs in updating CIMIS records regarding ongoing investigations, active equipment, and monthly time activity. The accuracy and timeliness of the CIMIS entries remain the responsibility of the SSA and SA.