GAO: Little progress on security clearance backlog

The transfer of investigative functions for granting security clearances from the Defense Department to the Office of Personnel Management is hindering, not helping the process so far, according to the Government Accountability Office.

GAO shared its findings (GAO-05-842T) on security clearance backlogs Wednesday with the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Government Management and the Federal Workforce, which is headed by Sen. George V. Voinovich, R-Ohio.

"The bottom line is that the security clearance process is a major national security and human capital challenge that needs to be resolved immediately," Voinovich said. "The cumbersome and lengthy process can stall the hiring of both federal employees and contractors for classified positions, such as terrorism and intelligence analysts, which can adversely impact our national security."

Derek B. Stewart, the director of defense capabilities and management at GAO, testified that "despite having two years…DoD and OPM did not ensure that software was available for the seamless submission of requests from DoD's system to OPM's." Stewart said that switching formats is causing significant delay.

On top of the technical glitches, OPM has a problem with the turnover rate in the ranks of investigators, most of whom are contract employees. Auditors concluded that OPM would need to add about 3,800 full-time investigators to the total staff of 4,200 in order to clear the backlog of more than 185,000 security clearances. In February 2004, however, OPM's primary contractor was adding 100 investigators a month, and losing 70.

Despite these two challenges, OPM can still have a positive influence on the process, argues a spokesman for the House Government Reform Committee.

"Clearly it will make it better, the idea of having OPM doing the investigations," said committee spokesman Robert White. The idea behind putting OPM in charge, he said, was to "streamline the process and get it all in the same agency."

The House committee had pushed for an executive order to implement security clearance reform, with the hope that getting the Bush administration behind it would add more weight. President Bush issued that order on Wednesday, adding another push along with GAO's pressure for reform.

"The signing of Executive Order 13381 is a major step forward on the road to meaningful security clearance process reform," Committee Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., said in a statement. "Large backlogs, long wait times and convoluted bureaucratic hierarchies have plagued this process for years, endangering national security and costing the taxpayers millions of dollars a year."

A primary objective of the executive order was to fix one of the problems the GAO report pointed out by requiring agencies to accept clearances granted by other agencies. The Office of Management and Budget will now oversee agency reciprocation.

GAO also reported that a new DoD initiative should decrease delays. Under the initiative, reinvestigations for employees who already hold security clearance will now be split into two phases. The second and more rigorous investigation part will be completed only if the initial investigation finds potential security issues.