FCW’s article, “Voinovich hot about security clearance delays,�
details Sen. George Voinovich’s indignation over the fact that people “sit idly for months� while their security clearances are processed. DOD was so far behind in its clearances that OPM was given the job. Now OPM is having trouble catching up.
The Coast Guard was recently taken to task over pretty much the same issue – delayed security clearances for non-federal employees working at the nation’s ports, including city officials, equipment operators and a slew of workers across several jurisdictions and industries. I expect a good part of Homeland Security has the same problem with intergovernmental clearances.
Industry faces increasing pressures to deliver cleared personnel on the day a contract begins, and the current delays in obtaining security clearances limits competition and increases costs to the federal government by delaying the introduction of the best personnel to vital programs and slowing the initiation of critical programs.
President Bush’s Executive Order: Strengthening Processes Relating to Determining Eligibility for Access to Classified National Security Information gets us moving in the right direction by standardizing the federal clearance processes. “Agency functions relating to determining eligibility for access to classified national security information shall be appropriately uniform, centralized, efficient, effective, timely, and reciprocal," the order states.
But is that going to be enough? Maybe we should hand out clearances with certain college diplomas. Any other ideas?
View Comments
There are currently no comments to display.
Post a Comment
To post a comment, you must be a registered user of FCW.com and be logged in. Use one of the forms below to login or register for FREE to FCW.com. To protect your privacy, you can use an alias as your username.
