Recent initiatives undertaken in the federal government
could vastly improve the overburdened security background
investigation process, the Merit Systems Protection Board’s
said in its April newsletter.
Lengthy background checks impede the appointment of
candidates to sensitive and critical positions. MSPB puts
the backlog for clearances at 500,000 cases, each taking
about a year to complete.
The Office of Personnel Management’s automated “e-QIP”
system allows candidates to do much of their paperwork
online, and the agency is in the process of acquiring
about 1,800 personnel from the Defense Security Service
so that OPM will handle nearly the entire government
background investigation process as a way to reduce
duplication, increase efficiencies and move agencies
toward accepting clearances from outside, noted MSPB.
It added that the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism
Prevention Act of 2004 requires agencies to complete
90 percent of investigations in under 60 days by 2009,
as well as recognize one another’s credentials.
In the near term, and in response to a GAO report saying
OPM and the Department of Defense need nearly twice the
amount of field investigators to handle the backlog, OPM
has approved a plan establishing a blanket purchase
agreements for background investigative services to
expand its capacity, said MSPB.
