Security Clearance Jobs Blog

Our popular ongoing series allows you to ask your most complex questions regarding security clearances and our regular contributors of present and former clearance investigators and adjudicators will try to answer them. The rules are listed below. Failure to abide by them will mean your question will be deleted.

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Related Articles:

• Employment Suitability Versus Security Clearance
• Criminal Conduct and Security Clearances
• Drug Involvement and Security Clearances
• Rebutting and Appealing Security Clearance Denials
• Alcohol Consumption and Security Clearances
• Personal Finances and Security Clearances

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On June 3, 2011 the Defense Security Service (DSS) posted “A Quick Reference Guide for the Newly Updated Standard Form 86” (QRG). “This QRG contains detailed field descriptions, step-by-step instructions, and a link to a printable form to help you determine what information you need to gather.” Unfortunately the printable form (July 2008 version) has not yet been updated to the March 2010 version.

This QRG provides 15 pages of detailed instructions for completing the SF86—much more comprehensive than anything previously published by DSS or the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). There are several errors and discrepancies in the QRG when compared to the internal instructions in the SF86 posted at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Reginfo.gov website.  For example the QRG indicates that only 7 years of residence information is needed for NACLC/Secret; whereas the OMB version indicates that 10 years of information is needed and make no distinction between NACLC/Secret and SSBI/Top Secret. There are also “years of coverage” discrepancies for the sections on “Where You Went to School” and “Employment Activities.” The section on “Use of Alcohol” leads off with “This section requires you to provide information regarding your illegal use of drugs. . . .” The section on “Relatives” indicates that a yes or no response is possible, and if a no response is selected the program will skip over this section and proceed to the next section.

Despite the errors, DSS should be applauded for creating the QRG. Hopefully within the weeks to come, they will correct these problems and expand on what they have already provided.

A sorely needed new capability to transmit attachments by scanning and uploading or by faxing has apparently been added to the SF86 e-QIP. This will enable to applicants to submit supporting documents directly to the Defense Industrial Security Clearance Office or other Government security office.

51 Comments »

The Defense Security Service (DSS) recent issued its “Stakeholder Report 2011,” summarizing its history and mission and detailing its recent achievements and notable cases. The report includes some statistical data for fiscal year 2010 (page 8). Of interest to most cleared contractor personnel is a brief explanation of “Incident Reports” (page 16) and how they are handled by the Defense Industrial Security Clearance Office (DISCO). An Incident Report is submitted whenever a company Facility Security Officer becomes aware of adverse information concerning a cleared employee. “DISCO receives about 8,000 incident reports a year and typically recommends about 120 interim suspensions a year to the DSS Director.”

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The “Annual Report to Congress on Personnel Security Investigations for Industry and the National Industrial Security Program” for fiscal year 2010 is one of the more useful periodic reports containing data on security clearance processing.  Produced by the Defense Security Service, it is the only report that provides any information about interim clearances and one of the few that provides raw numbers.

Understanding the numbers can be a little tricky.  For example, you can’t simply divide the number of interim clearances granted by the number of final clearance to determine the percentage of cases that received interim clearances, because:

• Applicants drop out of the process before a final clearance decision is made on their cases.
• Interim clearances are granted at the beginning of process and final clearances are granted at the end, and these 2 events don’t always happen in the same fiscal year.
• Some of the final clearance decisions were made for periodic reinvestigations where interim clearance decisions are unnecessary.

What the report clearly shows is that the Defense Industrial Security Clearance Office (DISCO) lost ground in FY2010.  It started the year with 9,596 cases pending and ended the year with 17,936 cases pending, even though it opened 5,687 fewer cases than it did in the previous year and granted 5,900 Secret clearances using eAdjudication.  According to the report, operational productivity declined due to personnel problems related to the scheduled relocation of DISCO from Columbus, Ohio to Fort Meade, Md. by August 2011.  Unless DISCO increases their use contract adjudicators or raises their pay scale, expect further problems in the coming months.

25 Comments »

On November 20, 2009 the Defense Security Service issued the following policy alert entitled, “Foreign Passport: Disposition Influences Personnel Clearance Eligibility.”

DISCO will not grant or continue a personnel clearance if the clearance applicant or cleared individual possesses a current foreign passport. In instances where the foreign passport is the sole potential disqualifying factor in the personnel clearance adjudication, DISCO will send a Joint Personnel Adjudication System (JPAS) message to the Facility Security Officer (FSO) stating that if DISCO receives reliable documentary evidence that the foreign passport has been destroyed, invalidated, or surrendered, DISCO will grant or continue the clearance. The passport holder may surrender the foreign passport to the FSO for safekeeping, but the FSO is not required to perform this service. . . .

Related Articles: Dual Citizenship And Security Clearances, Foreign Influence and Security Clearances

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