Security Clearance Jobs Blog

On December 22, 2010 the Office of Personnel Management announced that in February they will begin a phased implementation of the Electronic Questionnaires for Investigations Processing (e-QIP) version of the new March 2010 Questionnaire for National Security Positions (Standard Form 86—SF86). A copy of the new SF86 has not yet been posted to the OPM forms site, but was to be distributed to other investigations service providers before the end of December.

The last version (July 2008) of the SF86 was phased in over a period of about 5 months from September 2008 to January 2009.  DOD contractor personnel were among the last to begin using the form.

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In an earlier blog post it was mentioned that 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. Is this part of that message?

A former Central Intelligence Agency investigator pleaded guilty today to fabricating about 80 background checks of various people with summaries of interviews she did not conduct.  The investigator faces up to 12 months in prison and a potential $20,000 in fines. She also will be required to make $24,555 in restitution.  Her reports were used for hiring decisions and granting security clearance for people.

This is probably not a case of sabotaging investigations for the Russians! It’s more likely a case of laziness and/or incompetence. She had to know she was playing with fire, right? If it were a job that doesn’t affect national security, you’d be fired for lying, but that’s about it.

It’s unfortunate that only the bad news gets most of the attention these days and admittedly I am a contributor.

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Veritas Capital, a leading private equity firm, announced the acquisition of Kroll Government Services, Inc. from Kroll, Inc. Kroll Government Services, Inc. has been a leading provider of U.S. government security-clearance background investigations.

Kroll Government Services, Inc. has been renamed KeyPoint Government Solutions, Inc.

KeyPoint will continue to service U.S., state and local government customers including the Office of Personnel Management, the Department of Homeland Security, the Transportation Security Administration, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Department of Justice, the US Coast Guard, the Army National Guard and the Los Angeles Police Department, among others.

KeyPoint Government Solutions is currently looking for Background Investigators.

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Score one for the bureaucracy: Mule drivers at an eastern Pennsylvania historical park need the same federal security clearance as port workers. The Homeland Security Department has refused to grant an exemption to workers who operate a mule-pulled boat at the National Canal Museum in Easton.

This excerpt from a March 24, 2008 Associated Press article appearing in a number of Pennsylvania newspapers including the York Daily Record went on to report that each of the 4 mule drivers at the small museum will be required to have a Transportation Worker Identification Credential. The cost of processing these credentials will be $420, and the museum may have to increase their price for a canal ride.

These are not the same as the security clearances discussed on this blog, but the price of the identification credential appears to be equal to the cost of 4 NACIs (National Agency Check with Inquiries), the type of investigation needed for Personal Identity Verification Cards issued in compliance with Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12).

Scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory obtained a court injunction against the HSPD-12 background investigation requirement on the grounds that it is an unconstitutional violation of their privacy, but not so for mule drivers at a museum.

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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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A March 11, 2009 article in the Federal Times revisited The Joint Security and Suitability Reform Team‘s aims, including creating an automated end-to-end clearance process by the end of 2010. The idea is to use computers to automate what can be automated and to help better direct investigators toward areas where more scrutiny is needed…

“The government also wants to automate the process of approving and disapproving ” known as adjudicating” secret security clearances…Roughly one-quarter of secret investigations find no red flags that would cause adjudicating officials to take a closer look”…

The Army started experimenting with e-adjudication in November and will soon (June) be conducting automated record checks.

“Some industry observers, however, expect the effort will take at least three to five years to complete”…

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A 20 January 2009 article in Federaltimes.com reported that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is ready to handle clearance investigations for the Obama administration’s approximately 6,000 to 7,000 new politically appointed officials. Kathy Dillaman, Associate Director of OPM’s Federal Investigative Services Division was reported as saying, “Piece of cake. . . .The influx of Obama staffers will be a drop in the bucket compared to the roughly 2.3 million background checks OPM is expected to handle this year.”

In reality OPM currently conducts about 600,000 security clearance investigations a year. Two-thirds of the often cited 2 million “checks” involve only a fraction of the work required for a security clearance investigation. Nevertheless 6,000 only represents 1% of OPM’s annual clearance investigation workload, and OPM is adequately staffed to absorb much more than a 1% increase.

The 6,000 to 7,000 Obama officials are also expected to be spread out over the next few months, which mitigates the surge effect, Dillaman said. OPM is ready to offer [investigative] employees overtime or bring on some additional [investigative] contractors in case clearances start to back up, she said.

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