Security Clearance Jobs Blog

According to a May 25, 2009 article at FederalTimes.com, “Fifty-three federal and contractor falsified security clearance background investigations since 2005. . . . All of them have either been fired or left their jobs, and six were prosecuted within the last year for criminal misconduct.” The investigators worked directly or indirectly for the Federal Investigative Services Division (FISD) of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). OPM chose to prosecute six investigators to send a message to potential offenders that they can face felony charges and jail time, instead of just being fired.

Other current and former investigators blame the problem on crushing workloads and constant pressure from supervisors to meet shorter deadlines for completing investigations. The article quoted Kathy Dillaman, Associate Director of FISD, as saying, “There are certainly pressures to perform. The taxpayers deserve that. But this isn’t your job if you can’t handle those pressures.

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On 20 May 2009 the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report (GAO-09-400) on Department of Defense (DoD) security clearances, announcing, “Comprehensive timeliness reporting, complete clearance documentation, and quality measures are needed to further improve the clearance process.”

According to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and DoD, the top 90% of initial security clearances for DoD personnel took an average of 124 days to process in 2008. GAO came up with a number different than OPM and DoD, but they measured processing time in terms of the percentage of cases that took more than 120 days. GAO also found that 87% of Top Secret clearances adjudicated in July 2008 were missing one or more elements required by the national investigative standards.

The report is a follow-up to a 19 December 2008 GAO report (GAO-09-261R), DoD Personnel Clearances: Preliminary Observations about Timeliness and Quality. The new report provides more details regarding GAO’s findings from their earlier report. Interestingly, the new report alludes to the February 2009 annual report required by Title III of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (IRTPA), but this report has not been made publicly available on the internet.

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A news story from WHNT NEWS in Huntsville, Alabama exposed how people in high positions in the military and missile defense have purchased their degree without spending all the time, energy and money – at a diploma mill, where no classes and no course work are necessary…just cash.

The story focuses on a defense contractor with security clearance and phony degrees.

What’s the harm?

“So here we have a contractor responsible for handling very sensitive information…The person is susceptible to pressure to blackmail to being told that he needs to provide some information or else they’re going to nail him. They’ll make him lose his job and this is a person in a position of great responsibility. It’s really, really frightening” says George Gollin, who worked with the federal government to prosecute diploma mills.

“Any corrupt individual would be harmful to the defense of the United States of America whether it would be this issue or other issues,” said Brigadier General David Grange.

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Worried about being denied a security clearance because of bad credit? Considering a credit repair company to fix your credit report?

In an AARP Bulletin Today Scam Alert article, Credit Repair’s Dirty Business, Steven Baker of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was quoted as saying, “In the last year, we’ve seen an increase of 50 percent in reports of credit repair scams. And to date, we’ve never seen a legitimate credit repair company. False promises, upfront fees, and worthless services may be the norm.

Since 1998 the FTC has brought action against over 50 credit repair firms that allegedly misrepresented their credit-related services. The FTC also prosecuted more than a dozen companies that allegedly offered debt relief but misrepresented the cost or nature of the relief.

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