Industry personnel contracted to work for the federal government waited more than one year on average to receive top-secret clearances, longer than OPM-produced statistics would suggest, GAO has said.
It said an analysis of 2,259 cases showed the process took an average of 446 days for initial clearances and 545 days for clearance updates.
The application-submission phase of the process took 111 days, longer than OMB’s 14-day stated goal, and GAO said that OPM took an average of 286 days to complete initial investigations for top-secret clearances, well in excess of the 180-day goal specified in the plan that OMB and others developed for improving the clearance process.
Adjudication took 39 days on average, nine days longer than the 30-day requirement that takes effect in December, according to GAO-06-1070.
It said the delays are due to an inexperienced investigative workforce that in some cases continues to traffic in paper.
Further, OPM does not start tracking an application on the date it is submitted, something GAO said does not fully account for all the time used in the process and hinders congressional oversight of efforts to address the delays.
OPM provided incomplete investigative reports to DoD, and DoD adjudicators granted eligibility for industry personnel whose investigative reports contained unresolved issues, such as unexplained affluence and potential foreign influence, GAO said.
Nearly half of the 50 investigative reports for initial clearances GAO reviewed were missing required documentation regarding residence, employment, or education — and GAO found that DoD adjudicators granted top-secret clearance to 27 industry personnel whose investigative reports contained unresolved issues without requesting additional information or documenting that the information was missing in the adjudicative report.
