In its second aggregate review of agencies’ public posting of status reports for implementing Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12, meant to establish a common government-wide ID card, OMB said that as of March 1, over 2.5 million, or 59 percent of agency employees including military personnel have had completed background investigations.

It said that over 500,000 or 42 percent of contractors have completed background investigations, over 36,000 or 3 percent of contractors have received their “PIV” credentials, and 141,000 had completed the enrollment process.

“Agencies are requested to take full advantage of the capabilities of the new identity credentials and agencies and have been requested to prepare documented plans for leveraging the capabilities of the credentials,” said OMB’s e-gov and IT administrator, Karen Evans.

GAO recently issued a report saying that a lack of emphasis on getting the most out of the cards has led to the issuance of merely expensive ID cards rather than the more versatile credentials they are designed to be.

Earlier, OMB asked agencies to document their plans for integrating physical and logical access control systems with the use of the new cards in accordance with the requirements of circular A-11, “Preparation, Submission and Execution of the Budget” and A-130, “Management of Federal Information Resources.”

It said it would continue to work with agencies on their implementation plans and provide additional guidance to agencies as necessary. OMB plans to release the next government-wide HSPD-12 status report in July.

Many emails have the status of federal records, which must be managed and preserved in accordance with the Federal Records Act, but GAO has said four agencies it is reviewing are not meeting the challenges posed by maintaining e-mail records.

Although email management policies at DHS, EPA, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development address regulatory requirements, these requirements are not always met for the senior officials whose e-mail practices were reviewed, according to GAO-08-699T.

It said each of the four agencies generally followed a print and file process to preserve e-mail records in paper-based recordkeeping systems, but for about half of the senior officials, e-mail records were not being appropriately identified and preserved in such systems.

Instead, e-mail messages were being retained in e-mail systems that lacked recordkeeping capabilities, according to the report.

It said that unless they have recordkeeping capabilities, e-mail systems may not permit easy and timely retrieval of groupings of related records or individual records, and that keeping large numbers of record and non-record messages in e-mail systems potentially increases the time and effort needed to search for information in response to a business need or an outside inquiry, such as a Freedom of Information Act request.

GAO cited a lack of adequate staff support and the volume of e-mail received, and added that agencies have not ensured that officials and their responsible staff received training in recordkeeping requirements for e-mail.