GAO-04-632 DOD Personnel Clearances: Additional Steps Can Be Taken to Reduce Backlogs and Delays in Determining Security Clearance Eligibility for Industry Personnel
GAO-04-202T DOD Personnel Clearances: Preliminary Observations Related to Backlogs and Delays in Determining Security Clearance Eligibility for Industry Personnel
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent agency that works for Congress. The GAO watches over Congress, and investigates how the federal government spends taxpayers dollars. The Comptroller General of the United States is the leader of the GAO, and is appointed to a 15-year term by the U.S. President. The GAO wants to support Congress, while at the same time doing right by the citizens of the United States. They audit, investigate, perform analyses, issue legal decisions and report anything that the government is doing. This is one of their reports.
Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia
In 2004, Congress passed the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act to reform security clearance processes. The experience in evaluating personnel security clearance processes has consisted of examining the DoD program, which maintains 2.5 million clearances on service members, DoD civilian employees, legislative branch employees, and industry personnel working for DoD and 23 other fed. agencies. Long-standing delays in processing applications -- and other problems in DoD¿s clearance program -- led it to be designated a high-risk area in 2005. There has also been clearance-related problems in other agencies. Here, the author was asked to identify key factors that could be applied in personnel security clearance reform efforts.