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The new director of national intelligence said Wednesday that by adopting a commercial sector model, the government could save time and money issuing security clearances.

In his first speech since being sworn into the highest position in the U.S. intelligence community, Mike McConnell said American financial institutions are able to process the equivalent of a Top Secret clearance within two weeks. He said if the government follows their example, it would be able to bring in new employees at a faster rate, and the process would cost less.

McConnell said financial institutions are successful in reducing instances of dishonesty to nearly zero. He also said that once government employees have received clearances, it would be important to have "some sort of audit capability."

"My challenge to the community is to challenge the very foundation of why do we do it this way," McConnell said. "We're starting on that path ... we're in the early stages, and changing the standards is a challenge."

He spoke at the Excellence in Government conference in Washington, an event sponsored by Government Executive.

The intelligence chief said he wanted to start a debate on reforming the laws and regulations that govern the intelligence community.

He said Americans are supportive of intelligence gathering during crisis situations, but not on a continuous basis.

"Our history has been that we build it for crisis, sustain it for war and then take it down," McConnell said. "The only time we sustained intelligence was coming out of World War II."

The laws established during the Cold War served well then, but they are not suited to fighting the war on terrorism, he said.

McConnell added that from the end of the Cold War to 2000, the U.S. intelligence and defense budgets have declined by 40 percent. One of the key areas that atrophied in the 1990s was the intelligence community's ability to purchase large-scale systems, due to the lack of program managers and engineers.

Last month, McConnell announced the creation of the position of deputy director for acquisition within his office. He said at the time that an increased emphasis on acquisition is necessary to rebuild the intelligence community.

COMMENTS

• Good on paper but STILL not in effect. I know a handful of previously cleared US individuals holding a current DOD clearance that can't move agencies without an ENTIRELY new investigation = 30K and up to a year! Ridiculous. everyman Posted June 7, 2007 8:02 AM
• Should we turn to the financial institutions for advice on Security or Securities? The same financial institutions that issued accounts to aliens without social security numbers. The financial institutions that fire an employee caught stealing, but will not divulge that information to the financial institution where the thief applies for a new job. The same financial institutions that immediately close the account when a subpoena is issued for the account holders records. The financial institutions that issue credit to those who can’t afford it and then deem it a success when they’re able to recover part of the outstanding balance. A two week turnaround on a full security background investigation! They must plan to have an entire team assigned to each investigation. Why not do away with the background investigation altogether? When/if the employee is found to have perjured him or herself, we can get a declination from the local AUSA and penalize the employee. That will save lots of money. McCarthy Posted May 4, 2007 9:25 PM
• Let me get this straight. The new "Intelligence" guru hasn't heard about those businesses bilking the American taxpayer out of billions, defaulting on contracts, lying on contracts, bribing government officials, illegal contributions, etc.....etc... I assume the companies in all those instances would be the companies with the almost zero dishonest employees he's talking about. As an American citizen, I recommend he look for another job. GovExec.com reader Posted April 5, 2007 12:52 PM