Federal government implemented background check changes over past 12 months

Since last October, the federal government has made big strides in reforming the way that it conducts background checks on its employees and contractors. The single biggest change was that the government fired the background screening company that had been performing about 40 percent of its investigations, or about 21,000 background investigations each month. That background screening company, USIS, was also sued by the Justice Department for filing incomplete background checks on more than 660,000 employees and contractors. The Office of Personnel Management is responsible for overseeing the background checking process for those with security clearances — just under 5 million employees and contractors. An OPM audit of USIS showed that USIS’s employees were turning over a ridiculous large number of cases per employee each month, with one employee “dumping” 15,000 cases in a single month. That would have meant completing more than 85 background investigations every hour, assuming a 40-hour workweek. In addition to changing who conducts federal checks, a special council was formed to review the security clearance process. That council stated that the government needs to be utilizing more local and state police reports in their screening processes, as things that would definitely pop up in a local or state police report might not make it to a federal report, likely due to limitations in getting local or state police reports online and available for federal usage. Since the council made that call, the Office of Personnel Management has begun working to upgrade its technology in order to collaborate better with existing criminal databases. It has also begun requiring those with security clearances to undergo follow-up background checks every five years. The OPM has also taken steps to reduce the number of employees and contractors that may maintain clearances. Montana Senator Jon Tester has called the changes a “welcome sign that the federal government is finally beginning to hold contractors accountable for taking millions in federal money and then failing to get the job done for the taxpayer.” Photo credit: Vartian]]>