Security Clearance Jobs Blog

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) recently announced (FIN 10-08) the new prices of their standard investigative products for Fiscal Year 2011. There was no annual price increase in October 2009. With one exception, the prices of the most common investigations increased 3%. The MBI (Minimum Background Investigation, now renamed the Moderate Risk Background Investigation) increased 20% for priority handling and 27% for standard service. OPM discontinued the Limited Background Investigation (LBI), which was previously used for Public Trust determinations. It also eliminated the PTSBI (Public Trust Special Background Investigation) and the PRIR (Periodic Reinvestigation and Residence Coverage), as well as various special upgrades and updates to standard investigations.

It appears that the new Enhanced Subject Interview (ESI) will replace the Personal Subject Interview (PRSI), a standard component of many investigations. A separate charge for the ESI will be added to the price of the NACLC and ANACI when required by case expansion criteria.

Reimbursable Suitability/Security Investigations (RSI) will continue to be offered (FIN 10-09) for focused investigations needed to resolve issues that fall outside the scope or period of coverage of standard investigations. It is unclear whether the SPIN (Special Interview) will continue to be offered as an option under the RSI. With very few exceptions, federal agencies (including DISCO) pay OPM for these investigations. Here are the new prices that become effective on October 1, 2010:

Related Post: Cost of Security/Suitability Investigations – FY2009

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“Failure to provide truthful and candid answers during the security clearance process” is one of the most common reasons for the denial or revocation of security clearances.

Of the approximately 1,300 security clearance cases decided by Administrative Judges of the Defense Office of Hearings and Appeals (DOHA) during fiscal year 2008, Personal Conduct was the second most frequently cited issue and appeared in 497 (38%) of the cases. It was almost always cited due to applicants concealing information related to one of the other issues, such as criminal conduct, drug involvement, and alcohol consumption.

In recent years the misrepresentation of educational qualifications has gained increased importance in security clearance investigations and adjudication. Previously educational degrees were merely verified. Today the bona fides of questionable post-secondary schools are being scrutinized.

Unfortunately in many falsification cases, the information the applicant tried to conceal would not have resulted in a clearance denial…read more.

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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 press release from USIS indicates their investigators will soon use smartphones to help them perform a variety of functions to complete their casework when in the field conducting background investigations for the federal government.

USIS is piloting a program in its New York and Orlando offices, where investigators and site inspectors are trying out smartphones to process fieldwork, manage their case activities, and handle extension and lead information in real time.

Investigators can stay in immediate contact with team and workload leaders and access valuable information such as information indexes, issue resolution guides, and their own workload summaries.

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Our popular ongoing series allows you to ask your most complex questions regaring security clearances and our regular contributors of present and former clearance investigators and adjudicators will try to answer them. Here are the rules:

1. Please do not address a contributor by name to ensure anyone who has knowledge might answer.
2. Do not include your own name, email address, or other information that can identify you. This is a public forum and clearance holders have a responsibility for covertness.
3. If you have questions regarding careers, job hunting, salaries, interviewing, or other career-related topics, see the other threads dedicated to this purpose.
4. Provide full details about your case in your initial question thread.
5. Understand that the suggestions and comments contributors provide are their opinions only. The owners of this site are not responsible for the suggestions and guidance from outside contributors.

Please read over previous threads to see if your question has already been answered. Use the Search tool to locate specific keywords.

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On 30 April 2008 the Joint Security and Suitability Reform Team (JSSRT) issued its Initial Report in response to the President’s 5 February 2008 memorandum on Security Clearances.  The membership of the JSSRT is basically the same as the group that has been working since spring 2007 to completely reinvent the federal security clearance process.  The President’s memo directed that the group present a proposal to not only modernize the security clearance process, but to also integrate the clearance processes for national security, employment suitability, and access to federally controlled facilities.

Although the Initial Report presented a reform proposal as directed; it provided little information on what has been accomplished since spring 2007.  With the exception of eAdjudication and Automated Records Checks (ARC), which were both developed by the Defense Personnel Security Research Center before spring 2007 as the Automated Decision Support”ADS and the Automated Continuing Evaluation System ACES, the report merely outlined reform concepts and strategies.

It is possible that more concrete information about the progress being made on clearance reform can be found at the report’s technical appendix, but it has not been made available to the public.  On Thursday, 22 May, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee will have a hearing to look at progress in improving the security clearance process.  Perhaps more concrete information about the status of the reform initiative will be presented then. Is this finally the action needed, or just more talk?

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We’ve had a lot of threads here where people have briefly discussed how they obtained their clearance. Let’s make it official.. Tell us:

• When you received your clearance
• How long it took
• Which agency issued it
• Whether you received it as a contractor or Federal worker
• Any other interesting details

I’ll give my details below.

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