LOL. Riiiiiiight....
Posted on 09/20/2016 6:35:38 AM PDT by RitchieAprile
In less than two weeks, the Office of Personnel Management is expected to launch the new background investigation service to help fix the mess created by a series of incidents ranging from a lack of contractor oversight to the massive data breach affecting 21.5 million current and former federal employees.
Officials promise the National Background Investigations Bureau (NBIB) will be a much different organization than its predecessor, the Federal Investigative Services.
“It will have a politically appointed director, will be headquartered in D.C. and be a full member of the Performance Accountability Council, so it aligns with customers for increased accountability and formulation of policy. That is key,” said Jim Onusko, transition leader of the NBIB, during the INSA-AFCEA National Security Summit. “With the NBIB transition team, nothing is done in a vacuum. We work closely with the transition advisory group, including the Defense Department, the Director of National Intelligence, the Office of Management and Budget and other federal agencies. In addition, we’ve created eight new key functions for the NBIB to transform how the government performs background investigations. In addition to those eight new key functions, we also enhanced seven legacy functions to more effectively and efficiently perform those investigations.”
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Onusko said one key new function is the creation of a Senior Executive Service (SES) position to lead the Federal Investigative Records Enterprise (FIRE). This person’s charge will be to automate and digitize the NBIB’s processes.
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OPM offered more details on the NBIB in a Sept. 2 letter to Sens. John Tester (D-Mont.) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.). Tester and McCaskill wrote to OPM asking for an update on the NBIB on Aug. 23.
In the letter, OPM provided more specifics around the makeup of the NBIB. For example, along with the FIRE directorate, the NBIB also will include an Engagements and Customer Service office, which will include a newly established law enforcement liaison to promote and augment the exchange of vital electronic records, and a Business Transformation directorate, which will focus on data-driven decisions and policies to support strategic goals.
Several other interesting details emerged such as the NBIB will have 8,500 employees, including 3,000 feds and 5,500 contractors. OPM said it hired 400 new federal investigators in fiscal 2016 and plans to add another 200 in 2017.
OPM also recently awarded a contract to four vendors to support the work of federal investigators to do background investigations and begin addressing the backlog of cases.
Currently, Onusko said the backlog of security clearance cases is more than 500,000.
OPM told the senators that “secret cases are taking 105 days to complete and initial top secret cases are taking 214 days.”
Under the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, Congress mandated OPM complete 90 percent of all initial security clearance investigations in 40 days and the 90 percent of the initial top secret investigations in 80 days.
“FIS is also undergoing a business process re-engineering effort, which includes identification of continuous process improvements that may also ultimately result in investigative capacity and process efficiencies,” OPM stated in the letter. “The BPR team has met with the largest investigations stakeholders to explore ‘pain points’ and identify targets for process improvements. For example, improved automation in front-end investigations processing produces benefits throughout the investigation review, closing and delivery process. The BPR results will help generate requirements to inform DoD on the development of a next generation case management system for the NBIB.”
Onusko said there is no quick fix to reducing the time it takes to complete an investigation or the backlog. But OPM continues to look at a broad range of solutions, including working with customer agencies to optimize access to federal employees who need new or renewed investigations. OPM also hired back retired investigators and offered current ones overtime pay.
OPM offered few new details on DoD’s progress or efforts to develop the NBIB’s IT infrastructure.
The agency stated it would make some short term IT improvements based on its Digital Transformation Strategy.
“The initial phase of this plan is to enhance existing legacy systems currently hosted by OPM to address new critical functional, user and security requirements,” OPM stated. “Concurrently, OPM and DoD, in partnership with GSA’s 18F team, has launched a project to modernize the eApplication process and associated systems. The prototype of this modernized system is targeted for first quarter of 2017.”
Part of that work with 18F is refreshing the Electronic Questionnaires for Investigations Processing system (e-QIP). 18F issued a solicitation Sept. 6 through its agile development blanket purchase agreement to replace the 13-year-old system. OPM and 18F wants a contractor to build a front-end software application prototype of the e-QIP system using a modern technology stack, digitizing Standard Form 86 and importing existing data through an API. Bids are due Sept. 20.
OPM also expects the cost of security clearance investigations to rise in 2017 and 2018. Onusko said the 2017 pricing schedule for security clearance should be finalized later in September.
“Amongst other business process improvements NBIB will be able to deliver to its customers, in the future, NBIB expects to be able to better align pricing with the federal budget timeline,” OPM stated in the letter. “This initiative was developed as a result of structured engagements with customer agencies and is supported by a study done by DoD’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE) organization in concert with OPM and key stakeholders.”
A spokesman for Tester said the senator “still has some very strong concerns about the National Background Investigations Bureau. Until he is able to meet with the bureau’s permanent director and get more specific answers about the ‘new’ entity, he remains skeptical that the NBIB will be capable of properly vetting folks who want access to our nation’s most sensitive information and locations.”
So, our government is getting bigger, and another department is being born.
I feel much safer now.......
WE DO NOT NEED OR WANT another federal bureaucracy.
Just do some house cleaning and firing at the current agency to put them in line.
““It will have a politically appointed director, will be headquartered in D.C. and be a full member of the Performance Accountability Council, so it aligns with customers for increased accountability and formulation of policy. “
It’s already a failure. Politically appointed means corruption. This should be an agency contracted out to the private sector.
It seems to me the number of breaches was over 100 million and over a year ago at that. They must have given away all the information by now. Isn’t it a bit late to fix their lack of security? Kinda like the old firefighter wisecrack
“At least we saved the FOUNDATION!”
Are they going to offer a direct download feature to the Chinese government this time?
Because in your world, it makes sense to have a crony capitalist with a database of CIA agents.
“WE DO NOT NEED OR WANT another federal bureaucracy.
Just do some house cleaning and firing at the current agency to put them in line.”
I’m confused, you do not want another federal bureaucracy, and want the current agency fired. OK, then who does the security clearance investigations work?
IMO, this work should be centralized in one agency so the investigations and clearances are consistent throughout the alphabet agencies. Such as, a DoD clearance would equate to a NSA clearance so they can swap info.
IMO, the problem is not the creation of another agency, it’s how all of them are mismanaged by poor elected officials, obama and crew are the absolute perfect examples of very poor management.
Now there are agencies that can go away all together, the EPA is at the top of my list.
Yeah, right. Until the government starts imposing real responsibility and accountability in the bureaucracy, reorganizations will never make any difference.
Second verse, same as the first....
More shuffling of deck chairs on the Titanic....yawn....
My money says that a democrat campaign donor got this contract.
“(NBIB) will be a much different organization than its predecessor, the Federal Investigative Services.”
It will have a fresh new smell?
LOL. Riiiiiiight....
Because in your world, it makes sense to have a crony capitalist with a database of CIA agents.
*************
I get what you’re saying but there are some unique non-profit companies who have long established, trusted relationships with the government who could do this better than contracting out to a ‘crony capitalist’ or attempting to establish yet another bureaucracy. Relying on incompetent and uncaring bureaucrats to process clearances and safeguard the information clearly hasn’t worked well.
I think a third alternative like this has merit and should have been seriously considered, but the drive to expand government never ends.
You could make a lot of money on such bets. Those who donate get ‘consideration’, often in the form of lucrative contracts. I can assure that is a fact.
This is one area where work farmed out to the private sector (thanks Al Gore and reinventing government) needs to be brought back in (insourced). And back under DoD, not some large federal HR agency (OPM). You can’t do national security investigations for profit. Contractor USIS was found to have been “flushing” cases for higher profits. These companies doing background investigations now are hiring young inexperienced kids out of college as the investigators and it’s become a money-making operation for the contractors. This industry makes “War Dogs” look respectable.
A number of years ago, I interviewed for and rejected an offer to babysit an off-site clone of a server used to conduct/track, etc, background investigations. I had worked on contract at the main site, and found the contracted support to be lacking. I figured out that this would have been a cherry job, but I chickened out when the supposed technical program manager of the 8a corporation could not correctly answer one single technical question I had. Contracting out, particularly involving non-competitive bids by 8a’s is not always the solution.
Government contracting is a quagmire on its good days.
My estimate is that less than 5% of the contracts are awarded based on merit and successfully achieve their missions in the time-frames promised.
There are many reasons for this—political fixing and kickbacks, affirmative action and other games, quick buck artists running full or partial scams, brain-dead contract officers working for .gov, failure to punish all of above, etc....
Oh, you want accountability? Take a number. Line forms to the right. Yeah, right there behind the email guys.
If the past is any guide, their “improvements” to eQIP will make the process of getting or renewing a security clearance even more arduous and complicated. When I did my routine 10 year renewal application in 2014, the printed copy of the eQIP file ran over 100 pages. This was for a secret clearance I don’t actually use. I have to have it because it is a condition of employment imposed on contractors by DoD.
Thank the Lord, it was the last one I ever have to do. The ten year time frame falls well after my final retirement date. Unless, of course, the IT geniuses convince their bosses at OPM to scrap the current security clearance documentation in total and require everybody to resubmit.
A relative who is in a position to know says that there were firings over the OPM security clearance data breech. 21.5 million records potentially stolen! Here’s a Wikipedia article on it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Personnel_Management_data_breach
[Eisenhower's "Military-Industrial Complex" Speech Origins and Significance]
US National Archives
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gg-jvHynP9Y
Was Ike right?
Put the last 55+ years in the context of what he tried to warn us about... and you've got the present Industrial-strength Oligarchic-Kleptocratic fraternal L.I.F.E.R. R.E.M.F. cluster frack, operating behind an occult facade of "secrecy".
BOHICA!
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