Security Clearance Jobs Blog

The U.S. State Department is investigating an employee with top-secret security clearance who government investigators say mishandled classified information related to national security, according to an article on FoxNews.com.

“Eugene Reginald Hopson, a 30-year veteran of the State Department, described as an information management officer, oversaw the handling and security of classified information in U.S. embassies.

He was stripped of his security clearance and ordered back to Washington in October after 12 years overseas when State Department special agents found he had unauthorized possession of classified materials, according to an affidavit filed in the case.

A January search of his household belongings yielded five U.S. diplomatic passports, one Bolivian passport and evidence of bank accounts in Honduras, Italy and the Cayman Islands, search warrants show.”

The article goes on to state that The State Department confirmed that an investigation is underway, however, no charges have been filed. There are two laws that he possibly violated, one prohibiting “unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents” and the other on “gross negligence”, allowing classified information to be removed from its “proper place of custody“.

1 Comment »

A February 17, 2010 article at Government Computer News reported that:

“The Homeland Security Department is nearly three years behind in getting Personal Identity Verification (PIV) cards for its employees and contractors, according to a new report from DHS Inspector General Richard Skinner.”

Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (August 2004), Policy for a Common Identification Standard for Federal Employees and Contractors, mandated that federal agencies issue secure federal ID cards by October 2008. As of September 2009, only 15,567, of the approximately 250,000 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employees and contractors, had been issued PIV cards. The January 2010 DHS Inspector General’s report outlined 15 recommendations to improve the department’s implementation of HSPD-12.

Other federal agencies have also had problems implementing the PIV card requirement.  According to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as of December 2009 only a handful of federal agencies had met the October 2008 PIV card implementation requirements of OMB Memorandum M-05-24. A February 2008 article at nextgov.com provides a good overview of the program and its problems.

4 Comments »

The Partnership for Public Service and American University’s Institute for the Study of Public Policy Implementation published their 2009 rankings of the best places to work in the federal government. The rankings were based on data from the biannual Federal Human Capital Survey administered by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and are posted at http://data.bestplacestowork.org/index.php/bptw/index.

Data was collected from 212,000 federal employees in 279 federal organizations and subcomponents, including 30 large agencies and 32 small agencies. Index scores for large organizations ranged from 80.7 to 52.2.

Among those listed as large agencies, the Nuclear Regulatory Agency ranked 1st overall for employee satisfaction and commitment. The US Intelligence Community, which was included in the rankings for the first time, ranked 4th. Surprisingly (or perhaps not) OPM, whose title implies expertise in creating employee satisfaction and commitment, ranked 20th. The Department of Homeland Security ranked 28th.

Comments Off

Heading to day three of FOSE at the DC Convention Center? Drop by our booth #1809 and say hello. We’ve got super cool 1GB ClearanceJobs.com flash drives free for the first 10 visitors. Just make sure not to use them on any classified computers..

Comments Off