Other goals of such reciprocity include speeding up the time for bringing employees onboard and addressing skills gaps, GAO said, noting that the security clearance process is on its high-risk list, as is the issue of skills gaps. Image: goffkein.pro/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffFederal agencies have made only limited progress toward sharing results of background investigations that are used for determining suitability for employment and eligibility for security clearances despite directives dating to 2008, the GAO has said.
An executive order of that year and the “Trusted Workforce 2.0” program that started 10 years later generally require that agencies accept the results of each others’ investigations for similar positions, for reasons including enabling current employees to advance their careers by changing agencies, the GAO said.
“Effectively transferring personnel vetting determinations from one department or agency to another is key to enabling personnel mobility across the federal government,” it said. “For example, personnel mobility can help agencies access personnel with the skills needed to accomplish their missions.”
Other goals of such reciprocity include speeding up the time for bringing employees onboard and addressing skills gaps, GAO said, noting that the security clearance process is on its high-risk list, as is the issue of skills gaps.
It said that agencies review records in one or more of three IT systems to determine whether an individual has had a prior background investigation or vetting determination that meets the agency’s needs and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in turn requires quarterly reporting, including on denials of reciprocity.
However, the GAO found that the information reported to the ODNI is “inconsistent and incomplete,” and that records OPM separately maintains on requests for duplicative investigations also are “not reliable” because they include data on other events.
In a survey of 31 agencies and in closer looks at five, GAO found problems including that records of prior investigations do not include information about the core duties of the position. That “can be challenging when an individual is hired for a position that differs from the one they held at a prior agency,” GAO said, because information that was not disqualifying in the former position might be so in the new one.
Further, “agencies sometimes do not trust other agencies’ vetting processes” for security clearances, viewing other agencies as accepting levels of risk that are too high, it said. That was the case with 17 of the 31 agencies GAO surveyed. The same number reported that “other agencies, at times, do not provide the information needed to make reciprocity determinations.”
GAO said that an end-to-end records system under development could help with many of those issues but still made a number of recommendations to both the ODNI and the OPM. The OPM concurred and while the ODNI did not formally respond, GAO said that officials there said they “are willing to consider” recommendations directed toward best practices in record-keeping.
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See also,
Top 10 Provisions in the Big Beautiful Bill of Interest to Federal Employees
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