Progress and Continuing Challenges Found at Each Stage of DOD’s Personnel Security Clearance Process

We found that DOD has taken steps to address challenges found at all three  stages of its personnel security clearance process, but many of the steps  have not yet resulted in implementations that fully address the challenges. In the preinvestigation stage, DOD has begun decreasing the uncertainty in  its projections of how many and what levels of clearances are required by  identifying the clearances needed for military and civilian positions and  developing software that will result in electronic submissions of clearance  investigation requests to OPM. Adding thousands of staff could, however, result in  continued timeliness problems as well as quality concerns until the staff  gain experience. Regarding the adjudication stage, DOD’s Joint Personnel  Adjudication System consolidated the databases for 10 DOD adjudication  facilities to enhance monitoring of adjudicative decisions and time frames  for renewing clearances, but a new law requires a governmentwide  clearance database. Preinvestigation Steps Being Taken to Help DOD Identify Requirements for Clearances and Address Submission of Requests for Clearance Investigations

At this time, DOD is uncertain about the number and level of clearances  that it requires and has experienced problems submitting investigation  requests, but the department has begun addressing these problems. Similarly, in response to our May 2004 recommendation to improve the  projection of clearance requirements for industry personnel, DOD  indicated that it is developing a plan and computer software to have the  government’s contracting officers authorize the number of industry  personnel investigations required to perform the classified work on a given  contract and link the clearance investigations to the contract number. Despite having 2 years between the time when OPM and DOD announced  an agreement for the transfer of DOD’s investigative functions and  personnel to OPM and when the transfer actually occurred, DOD cannot  make full use of OPM’s Electronic Questionnaires for Investigations  Processing (eQIP), the system used to submit materials required to start a  background investigation. For February 2005, OPM told us that it had more than 185,000  investigations governmentwide that had taken longer than its goals for  closing cases: 120 days for initial investigations and 180 days for  reinvestigations. Our prior review noted that delays in completing personnel security  clearance investigations for DOD and other agencies have resulted, in part,  from a shortage of investigative staff. In addition to correcting these problems,  implementation of much of JPAS has eliminated the need for DOD’s 10  adjudication facilities to maintain their own databases of adjudicative  information. OPM  officials stated that JPAS and OPM’s Clearance Verification System account  for over 90 percent of the government’s active security clearances and that  the remaining clearances are primarily housed in classified record systems  (e.g., the Central Intelligence Agency’s Scattered Castles) devoted to the  intelligence community. In our February 2004 report, we noted that DOD had (1) as of September  30, 2003, a backlog of roughly 90,000 completed investigations that had not  been adjudicated within prescribed time limits, (2) no DOD-wide standard  for determining how quickly adjudications should be completed, and  (3) inadequate adjudicator staffing. In summary, Mr. Chairman, we will continue to monitor  this area as we do for all of the high-risk programs on our list. Much  remains to be done to bring lasting solutions to this high-risk area. High-Risk Series: An Update. Washington, D.C.: January 2005. DOD Personnel Clearances: DOD Needs to Overcome Impediments  to Eliminating Backlog and Determining Its Size. DOD Personnel: More Actions Needed to Address Backlog of Security  Clearance Reinvestigations. GAO/NSIAD-96-20. Personnel Security Investigations.
Why GAO Did This Study

Threats to national security--such as the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and high-profile espionage cases--underscore the need for timely, high-quality determinations of who is eligible for a personnel security clearance which allows an individual to access classified information. The Department of Defense (DOD) needs an effective and efficient clearance program because it is responsible for about 2 million active clearances and provides clearances to more than 20 other executive agencies as well as the legislative branch. Despite these imperatives, DOD has for more than a decade experienced delays in completing hundreds of thousands of clearance requests and impediments to accurately estimating and eliminating its clearance backlog. In January 2005, GAO designated DOD's personnel security clearance program as a high-risk area. In February 2005, DOD transferred its personnel security investigative functions and about 1,800 positions to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), after 2 years of negotiation between the agencies. This testimony provides an update on the challenges that led to GAO's high-risk designation. It identifies both the positive steps that have been taken to address previously identified challenges and some of the remaining hurdles. GAO will continue to monitor this area.

What GAO Found

While DOD has taken steps to address the problems that led to designating its clearance program as high risk, continuing challenges are found in each of the three stages of DOD's personnel security clearance process. Preinvestigation: To address previously identified problems in projecting clearance workload, DOD is identifying the military and civilian positions that require clearances. Identifying clearance requirements for contractor personnel is still in the planning phase. Another problem is the efficient submission of investigation requests. In the 2 years since DOD and OPM announced the transfer of DOD's investigative functions and personnel to OPM, the two agencies did not ensure the seamless submission of DOD requests to OPM. DOD is developing software to remedy this problem. Investigation: Delays in completing investigations are continuing. For February 2005, OPM--which now supplies an estimated 90 percent of the government's clearance investigations--reported that over 185,000 of its clearance investigations had exceeded timeliness goals. OPM's effort to add investigative staff is a positive step, but adding thousands of staff could result in continued timeliness problems and quality concerns as the staff gain experience. OPM's workload should decrease because of two recent initiatives: (1) eliminating a few of the investigative requirements for some reinvestigations of personnel updating their clearances and (2) requiring the acceptance of clearances and access granted to personnel moving from one agency to another. Adjudication: In the past, DOD had difficulty monitoring who had been adjudicated for clearances and when the clearances needed to be renewed. While the Joint Personnel Adjudication System has combined databases from DOD's 10 adjudicative facilities to enhance monitoring, wider consolidation of government databases may be required. The Director of OPM will need to integrate all federal agencies into a single governmentwide database in order to meet a requirement established in a recent law. As of September 30, 2003, DOD had a backlog of roughly 90,000 adjudications.