Federal Manager's Daily Report

The Department of Defense has a backlog of personnel

security clearance requests at around 360,000 that

stands to increase the cost of classified government

work and reduce DoD’s ability to develop accurate

budgetary and staffing plans, and define, measure and

anticipate future requests, the General Accounting

Office has said.

It said high volumes of new requests and the lack of

a strategic plan to work around hurdles in the way of

getting essential information prevent DoD from

accurately estimating the size of the backlog and

chipping away at it.

DoD’s plans to transfer its investigative functions

and personnel to the Office of Personnel Management

stalled in December 2003 because DoD had not provided

Congress with necessary certifications to do so, and

because OPM is hesitant to commit to uncertain

financial risks associated with taking on the

responsibility.

As an alternative, GAO said DoD and OPM are in

discussions about keeping investigative staff in the

Defense Security Service and training them to use

OPM’s case management system, which one DoD official

estimated could save $100 million in update and

maintenance costs over five years.

GAO recommended that DoD address the problem

systematically, first by devoting more manpower to it,

then coming up with a strategic plan, developing

standard backlog vocabulary, measures and reports,

and completing work on its investigative Joint

Personnel Adjudication System.

Go to http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-344.for