How e-Adjudication for Background Investigations Works

The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) has the ability to provide e-Adjudication shared services to other agencies for Tier 1, Tier 3 and Tier 3R investigations. The e-Adjudication business rules enable a uniform and consistent mechanism that supports reciprocity of adjudications. The use of e-Adjudication greatly shortens case processing times for the cleanest cases, facilitates the initial review of complex cases by adjudicators, reduces adjudicator workload, increases adjudication consistency, and facilitates the assignment of complex cases to adjudicators with relevant expertise. The current e-Adjudication capability derived from a previous initiative called the Adjudication Decision Support (ADS) and e-Adjudication rolled out in 2009 by the Office of Personnel Management. Here is how it works:

The requesting agency submits an investigation request to DCSA who, based on what tier level it is, determine the requirements and schedule all required checks. Once all of the required items are completed the investigation is closed and automatically reviewed for potential issues using the established business rules written into an algorithm. If nothing pops up the case is characterized as a “Z” no-issue investigation and is automatically e-Adjudicated before it is sent back to the requesting agency. If the investigation was for a security clearance then the requesting agency grants the applicant eligibility for access to classified information based on the results. If it was for suitability or fitness to work on behalf of the government the requesting agency files the adjudicative decision into their own system or record.