How Good Are Background Investigations for Security Clearances?

The National Background Investigations Bureau (NBIB) - part of OPM (Office of Personnel Management) provides background investigations for eligibility for access to classified information; eligibility to hold a sensitive position; suitability or fitness for government employment; fitness to perform work for or on behalf of Government as a contractor employee; and more.

NBIB has a staff of more than 9,900 federal and contract employees. Think of that. That number is more than double the number of contract auditors. Last fiscal year, according to the Justice Department, NBIB processed more than 2.5 million background investigations. That works out to more than 250 investigations per employee. That works out to an average of more than one investigation per day if the employee never took any vacation, sick leave or holidays. Is that even possible? Seems like NBIB employees might be overworked. Perhaps they are.

The Justice Department just announced a guilty plea by a background investigator who did work under contract for OPM. This contract worker falsified work on background investigations of federal employees and contractors. In 2014 and 2015, this investigator falsified information in more than two dozen "Reports of Investigations". She represented that she had interviewed a source or reviewed a rcord regarding the subject of the background investigation when in fact, she had not conducted the interview or obtained the records of interest. Her reports were utilized and relied upon by various agencies requesting the background investigations to determine whether the subjects were suitable for positions having access to classified information, for positions impacting national security, for receiving or retaining security clearances, or for positions of public trust.

The Government, of course, had to reopen those investigations and spent about $190 thousand to re-investigate. The Justice Department claims that OPM has "a robust integrity assurance program which utilizes a variety of methods to ensure the accuracy of reported information and that the falsification of investigative case work by this investigator was detected through the program. The Justice Department noted that since 2008, 24 other background investigators have been convicted of charges involving  false representations.

Proposed Legislation - Fitness Information Transparency Act

Last February at a hearing in front of the Oversight and Management Subcommittee of the House Homeland Security Committee, representatives of contractors for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) complained about losing money while waiting for clearances form DHS. The contractors cited a number of problems including

• differing security standards across components
• opaque internal processes, and
• slow communications from DHS to contractors

One contractor testified that his employees wait, on average, 213 days for a DHS fitness determination even though the company has worked with DHS for more than ten years. Another contractor complained that DHS had approved an employee in June but didn't bother conveying that information to the contractor until the following February, eight months later. Other contractors complained that different components within DHS had their own unique standards for clearing contractor employees. Many other anecdotal fumblings by DHS came out in that hearing.

 

Last week, as a direct result of that hearing, two Congressmen introduced a bill in the House that would require the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to streamline "fitness determinations" for people working under contract for the Department. This is not a bill that addresses fitness as in physical fitness but one that addresses character and conduct.

This Bill, if passed, would require DHS to:

1. coordinate with the heads of components of the Department to review and consolidate all Federal contractor fitness standards used by the Department and its components in order to issue a uniform set of fitness standards that reflect public trust concerns which correspond to each position risk level
2. require the Department to use such uniform fitness standards that corresond to the relevant position risk level as the basis for fitness determinations for a contractor employee; and
3. publish the standards that correspond to each such position risk level on the public website and the Federal Register.

You can read the full text of the proposed legislation here.

Don't Just Pick on Contractors - Look at Military and Civilians as Well

The Professional Services Council (PSC), an industry organization representing service contractors, wrote a letter last week to Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, urging them not to focus only on the security clearance practices for contractors but also for military and civilian employees. The PSC noted that the process is the same for contractor, military, and civilian employees and any Congressional investigations into security clearance lapses should not be limited to contractor employees.

In the wake of the Snowden/NSA leak and more recently the Alexis/NAVSEA incident, DoD and other organizations are examining their procedures for granting security clearances. Also, Congress is set to hold hearings on the subject. PSC is trying to preempt Congress from beating up on contractors when the issue is more widespread.

There's plenty of blame to go around. The Navy itself may be a major contributor to the problem. While in the Navy, Alexis shot out the tires of a car belonging to construction workers who were parked next door to the house he was living. The Navy investigated and their report removed any reference to him using a gun. It merely stated that Alexis "deflated the tires on a construction worker's vehicle". Based on that characterization, the Navy granted Alexis a secret clearance. Later, he shot a gun into a upstairs apartment and by that time, the Navy had had enough. They released him. However, the Navy gave him an honorable discharge and the highest possible re-enlistment code.

About 75 percent of security clearances are issued to military and civilian employees of the U.S. Government. Only 25 percent are issued to contractor employees. Whatever gaps there are in the process of granting security clearances are equally applicable to all individuals seeking to obtain or retain a clearance.