Q: Your 2004 report recommended that the Department of Defense work closely with the Office of Personnel Management to design and implement a plan for getting rid of clearance backlogs and delays. To your knowledge, what progress has DOD made on this?

A: GAO is unaware of any progress that DOD has made toward implementing our May 2004 recommendation to “develop and implement an integrated, comprehensive management plan to eliminate the backlog, reduce the delays in conducting investigations and determining eligibility for security clearances, and overcome the impediments that could allow such problems to recur.� Information supplied by DOD as part of a required follow-up action on all GAO recommendations lists a few actions, but nothing is mentioned about developing an integrative approach that incorporates objectives and outcome-related goals, sets priorities, identifies resources, establishes performance measures, and provides milestones for permanently eliminating the backlog and reducing delays.

Q: Based on your analysis, how much money do you think has been wasted due to lengthy security clearance processes, when employees come into work but cannot participate in substantive assignments until cleared?

A: GAO does not have an up-to-date estimate of the costs resulting from delays in determining eligibility for a personnel security clearance. However, our February 2004 report documents some past estimates as well as cost-related considerations that apply today. For example, we noted that in our 1981 report, we estimated the DOD investigative backlog could cost nearly $1 billion per year in lost productivity. More than a decade later, the Joint Security Commission report noted that the costs directly attributable to investigative delays in fiscal year 1994 could be as high as several billion dollars because workers were unable to perform their jobs while awaiting a clearance.