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The Defense Department is grappling with a backlog of about 180,000 applications for security clearances from private sector workers, and the time it takes to process those clearances has increased in the past three years, according to a report released Wednesday by the General Accounting Office.

In the report (GAO-04-632),GAO found the average time it takes the department to conduct a background investigation of a clearance applicant and to decide whether to award a clearance has increased by 56 days over the last three fiscal years, to 375 days.

The backlog consists of three categories: 101,000 new investigations or reinvestigations (which are required to renew clearances) that haven't been completed; more than 61,000 cases that need reinvestigation, but that haven't been submitted to the department; and more than 25,000 adjudications, or determinations of clearance eligibility, have not been completed.

GAO identified several causes of the backlog, which has become a particularly nettlesome problem for Defense as the demand for clearances - from both federal personnel and contractors - has increased amid heightened security across government. An increase in the number of requests for top secret clearances, which require more time to process, has also contributed to the problem, GAO found.

Top secret clearances often require investigators to conduct face-to-face interviews with an applicant's friends, co-workers and relatives. The Defense Security Service, which includes some of the most experienced background investigators in the government, conducts those interviews. Several DSS employees have complained in recent weeks that the organization is short-staffed and underfunded.

GAO concurred with that assessment, saying there are "insufficient investigative and adjudicative workforces to handle the large workloads" and recommended that Defense civilian officials develop a plan to reduce the backlog. Among the recommendations is eliminating limitations on reciprocity, the acceptance by one agency or department of a clearance granted by another. Contractors have targeted lack of reciprocity as one cause for the backlog.

Defense is considering a number of options to cut the backlog, including conducting phased reinvestigations, establishing a separate adjudicative group for private sector applicants, reevaluating DSS's investigative standards and installing an automated verification process for private-sector clearance requirements, GAO said.

One highly anticipated effort aimed at addressing the backlog is on hold, however. Last year, the Office of Personnel Management announced it would absorb DSS employees into its investigative operation in an effort to streamline the clearance process. Last month, however, OPM backed off that plan. "DSS business practices were not up to the standard we hoped they were," said Stephen Benowitz, OPM's associate director of human resources, products and services.

That statement touched off an intense reaction among DSS employees. In interviews, several of them expressed frustration at OPM for trying to pin the backlog mainly on DSS. The investigators, who all spoke on condition of anonymity, say that DSS faces a greater hurdle because the background investigations that it conducts are more thorough and time-consuming than those OPM performs for civilian agency employees and contractors.

Benowitz has disputed that, saying that OPM follows the same national security clearance guidelines as DSS. Currently, DSS isn't allowed to open any new investigations, and has been focusing on cutting the backlog and training its employees to use OPM's automated case processing system. DSS investigators express frustration over adapting to OPM's system, saying it is cumbersome and outdated.

In a May 25 letter to House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., OPM Director Kay Coles James assured him that "OPM and DSS have been working closely together to orchestrate the successful, seamless transfer of automated case management from the Department of Defense system to OPM's" system. James said it would cost more than $100 million to overhaul the Defense system. The DSS investigators say the OPM system doesn't allow for the flexibility of entering case notes and text that is a trademark of the Defense system, which is based on the Microsoft Windows operating system. The OPM system is based on the much older DOS platform.

James told Davis that all DSS employees would be trained on the OPM system - called the Personnel Investigations Processing System (PIPS) - by the end of the month.

COMMENTS

• Clinton and Gore... The gov't saw how expensive things were being done in 1996 and they created the pool of contractors to perform security clearances. Saying that money motivates is down right stupid. I have not served for my country, but I am going to do my best to perform a quality investigation from top to bottom. My production does effect my income, (just like any job in the world)but if you think I do it for the money than you're an idiot. If you knew how much we made you would take back your comments regarding the fact that investigators now think only of profit and income. We make alot less than the GS 11/12's that were doing the job years ago. The investigative workforce is higher than it has ever been, and events which changed the world overnight like Sept. 11, take time to respond to. After 09/11, every agency and their dog jumped on the investigative wagon, pointing blame and criticizing anyone in this field is pathetic and is not helping the process. GovExec.com reader Posted March 30, 2005 11:48 PM
• Read with interest the defense of their jobs by DSS personnel and ran across this report. There is some question where Cannon is getting his info... well it seems that this is the place. http://www.fas.org/irp/gao/nsiad-00-065.htm Former Gov. Investigator Posted February 21, 2005 12:12 PM
• I've been watching this issue for a while and as a recently retired US Special Agent with over 33 years of service with the Treasury and Justice department, I have to say that this issue is a bit unbalanced to say the least and OPM is not the answer. First and foremost, DSS agents are USG 1811 series Criminal Investigators and they come from all ranks, some are former Secret Service, IRS, DEA, and even the FBI. They look at the cases very differently than private contractors who mostly come from non-law enforcement backgrounds and their standards are much higher and I personally do not think that law enforcement functions should ever be outsourced, especially in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. I've worked with a number of DSS agents over the years and they know the job. I've also worked with some of the major high dollar private defense contract investigators and they just do not bring the same skills , educational and experience level to the investigative process as the DSS or other USG agents do. They can't as they do not have the background for it and it's really a numbers game. I think the real problem here is that DSS does not have the political support necessary to do the job because it's not a big priority for the Defense department but the Agents are first rate. I've never worked for DSS and I don't have an axe to grind with my friends in the private contract investigaton area either, I just think this whole issue is an unbalanced political football. Frank R. Provyn Posted October 23, 2004 10:23 AM