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Return to Article: OPM puts security clearance merger plans on ice

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  It seems to me that the lack of staffing is probably the biggest problem causing the delays in getting background investigations completed in a timely manner. Hence, more people should be hired, maybe Criminal Investigators from other segments of the government could help out on a collateral duty basis, to help address the backlog of pending investigations. Also, maybe some positions do not require the same level of a background investigation as others. Hence, the investigation process could be streamlined for positions requiring a lesser amount of background investigation. Also, some of the background investigation work could be contracted out, that is an alternative to help reduce the pending cases. I'm dismayed at the treatment of the employees who perform this critical work, and I'm dismayed even more by the lack of leadership on the part of the United States Office of Personnel Management in solving this problem governmentwide, as well as helping the Defense Department solve it's backlog of pending cases in a civil manner. The "relationship problem" between OPM and DOD will only make the backlog of pending cases bigger and de-energize the employees who are doing their best to work these cases.

  Nicholas J. Vigilante Posted June 15, 2004 10:51 AM
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  Thank you investigators and security professionals for all that you do. I know that many of your success stories are untold. I have seen it from both spectrums. Drive on!

  Thanks everyone!
  Adjudicator-USIS
  Former Background Investigator, Defense Intelligence Agency
  

  John Borley Posted June 2, 2004 12:21 PM
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  To Mr. Cullen. You say getting a clearance is a joke. Forget about the times you submitted that were lost, I can go into a whole other story about that. You submitted in Mar 03 and have not got a clearance yet. Let me give you the perspective of the agent that is assigned to your case: Agent Smith comes to work in Mar 03 and his supervisor assigns him 15 cases, yours being one of them. He walks to his desk and puts those 15 cases under the 350 that were there before them. He pulls the case off the top and hits the street. Agent Smith is extremely productive this day in Mar 03 and closes out 7 cases that can now leave DSS and go to DISCO or CCF for adjudication (which last I heard is running about 6 months). Good deal, now he only has 358 cases to work tomorrow. He comes to work tomorrow and is assigned 17 cases from his supervisor. He goes to his desk and puts those underneath the 358 case he already has. He pulls off the top case and starts working. He has an ok day and closes 5 cases. Comes into work the next day and is assigned 12 more cases. You see the pattern here? Now why should Agent Smith say "Oh, Mr. Cullen is waiting for his clearance, I guess I should move his case to the top over all of these other people who have been waiting longer?" What makes you more special than the guy working at Lockheed Martin who has been waiting since Mar 02? Simple arithmetic says HIRE MORE PEOPLE!!! Point at the agencies doing the investigations all you want, but it doesn't make their caseload any smaller. Toss in this stupid "we're gonna merge/no were not/yes we are/no were not" garbage and it makes it worse. Did you know that OPM wanted to talk to all the DSS agents so in the western part of the country ALL DSS agents had to fly to either San Jose or San Diego for a 4 hour meeting last year? 1 day travel to, 4 hour meeting, 1 day travel back. That was 3 WHOLE days with no investigators in the field. Talk about fraud, waste and abuse!

  Federal Investigator Posted May 28, 2004 12:12 PM
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  No need to have pity for those 700 "fired" OPM Investigators, who became co-owners of US Investigations Services. In January 2003, a group of New York venture capitalists paid more than a half-billion dollars for the company. You do the arithmetic.

  GovExec.com reader Posted May 21, 2004 8:19 PM
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  If I was a DSS Federal Investigator I would certainly be quaking in my boots. It's very apparent that OPM does not want the DSS Investigators and it's also quite obvious that DOD is looking for a way to get rid of DSS. So watch out it looks like the DSS investigators will be applying for jobs with USIS before too soon.

  Joe Ruben Brown Posted May 20, 2004 6:53 PM
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  The DSS investigators should be happy and overjoyed that OPM does not want them. Look what happened to the OPM investigators when they were part of OPM. The OPM investigators were privatized, i.e. fired.

  Rueben Willy Posted May 12, 2004 4:56 PM
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  Here was a chance for OPM to FINALLY do something productive, and they weasel out in typical fashion. This story reinforces my belief that OPM is nothing more than a bunch of figureheads incapable of doing anything productive. To call any agency's business practices not up to standard is ironic when you consider there are few entities in the federal government more worthless than OPM.

  GovExec.com reader Posted May 7, 2004 3:00 PM
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  Getting a clearance is a joke. I have submitted my paperwork three times starting in NOV 02 because the paperwork somehow kept getting "lost." My last submission was MAR 03 and I have still not received my clearance. It is hindering me from doing my job to the fullest extent. OPM should take this over if for no other reason than to help the American people. In reality, that is what we are all here to do.

  Chris Cullen Posted May 7, 2004 9:04 AM
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  For service to the country, bring DSS over and lead them in changes to their process and get on with processing the tremendous backlog in clearances in a more timely fashion. With over thirty-five years as a FED, I am appalled with this kind of lack of leadership on the part of OPM and the disservice to the nation. Please take a little broader view of your role and step-up and help your fellow agency leaders, managers, and personnel. You are impeding their delivery of services to the American people.

  Ron L. Thompson Posted May 6, 2004 9:26 AM
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  This is an excellent story from the Office of Personnel Management's view because it allows them to portray themselves as an aggrieved party. The essential problem with the story is that it is so biased in favor of OPM that it almost looks like a press release for them. DSS is a small agency within the DoD and the only thing we do is backround investigations for DoD personnel. We admittedly do have a "different" business process in that we operated solely from appropriated monies - OPM "charges" (a term called Fee for Service) their customers for the investigations the way a business would. What they are really saying is that DSS is not "profitable" by their standards and that they will not accept DSS until such time as the are "profitable". The problem with this "profitablity" aspect of govenment is that it is a shell game - one government agency pays another government agency with the same taxpayer dollars - that may be at the expense of National Security. When background investigations for security clearances are allowed to reach the level of widget production on an assembly line and the goal becomes one of profitablity what happens to the orginal purpose of conducting them in the first place -- to make sure that people who have access to classified and sensitive data are in fact suitable for such access. That doesn't mean we should not control costs but cost should not be the sole driver in such important investigations. The only relevant information in this story is that OPM does not want to take DSS. The real news is that DSS really does not want to go to OPM - the problem is that no one is saying that.

  GovExec.com reader Posted May 6, 2004 7:51 AM
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  The 375 day average cited in the story would be a vast improvement over what I'm experiencing in the DOD sector. My experience over the past three years with my new hires is 18-24 months for a Secret clearance.

  Steve Johnson Posted May 6, 2004 6:49 AM