Background Investigation Contractor Workload Doubled
KeyPoint Government Solutions (KPGS) announced that is it has doubled its caseload following the downfall of USIS and the subsequent reassignment of their cases over to KPGS and CACI. According to a story published in FedBiz, KPGS has had to borrow $22 million in order to meet the increased workload demands and personnel hiring needed to complete the cases that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has assigned. CACI has also experienced an increased caseload but was not forthcoming with any statistical data. OPM’s $2.5 billion Background Investigation Fieldwork Program contracts were redistributed between KPGS and CACI following OPM’s decision in September not to renew options with USIS.
This was big news at the time, with former USIS investigators who all of a sudden found themselves in limbo, scrambling to find employment in other investigative related jobs or transitioning as background investigators over to KPGS or CACI. The last few months have been quiet while the backlog created by this transition is slowly whittled down. Although the investigation caseload is now streaming and on track, it appears based on comments from the field that the completion of more investigations within a smaller window of time has created a log jam on the adjudicative side of the house. If we look at this analytically, the number of adjudicators has not increased but they are having to review more cases, which results in longer end to end wait times for security clearance decisions.
As a security professional the only advice I can offer to ensure the shortest wait time for the process is to submit your e-QIP expeditiously as soon as you are notified and ensure you provide the most complete and accurate information possible for all questions so that it will be processed upon first review. This means doing your homework beforehand on names, addresses, phones numbers, email addresses, employers, education, relatives, and foreign national contacts.
Comment Archive
Are these same people working DoD and DHS investigations? I successfully completed a 5 yr reinvestigation on my DoD TS in April ’14. I’m on a GSA contract since 10/14 and DHS does their clearances. No GSA badge as of mid 12/14. I can’t get to the computer systems for things like reserving a seat in the HQ building. I have a CAC and a Pentagon badge for an Army contract. The CAC gets me in the building unescorted. I’m a process improvement consultant. I smell an opportunity to improve. But if this is a political or territorial thing (DHS doesn’t want to use DOD background investigations or DOD not making them available) my approach to the problem is different than if it is related to transferring work between contractors.
By Executive Order all federal agencies must accept under reciprocity a completed and favorably adjudicated investigation as long as it meets or exceeds the position requirements. Under HSPD-12 the minimum level of investigation (NACI) is sufficient to issue a PIV or CAC credential. According to what you have depicted, it sounds like someone is not following these guidelines.