Penny Ante Accounting Halts Security Clearances
17 May 2006 6:24 pm by Taylor Marsh
UPDATE: Shazaam! Found this after the post… Security clearance processing will resume.
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Via Justin Rood at
TPM Muckraker we have yet another reason why Democrats continue to lead
on national security. This one, however, defies even the wackiest reasoning
anyone could conjure up. Because of an accounting war between the Pentagon and
the Office of Personnel Management, the ability to approve security clearances
has stopped dead. Aren't we at war? Evidently, shelling out money for national
security isn't as big a priority as those tax cuts Bush approved just today.
The OPM, as it is called, handles background checks and security clearances
for the intelligence and defense communities. The DOD is responsible for around
2 million “active personnel security clearances.” Well, in April,
the DOD announced it was going to stop processing security clearances. Congress couldn't
understand why this was about to happen so they asked the Government Accountability
Office (GAO) to find out.
First, here's the GAO's reasoning behind doing the study in the first place.
I hate like hell playing stenographer, but it's just too good to paraphrase.
I mean it's in black and white. The Bush administration doesn't want to pay
the money it costs to have security clearances approved, so they're shutting
down the system. I kid you not.
… Delays in determining eligibility for a clearance can heighten the risk
that classified information will be disclosed to unauthorized sources and
increase contract costs and problems attracting and retaining qualified personnel.
On April 28, 2006, DOD announced it had stopped processing security clearance
applications for industry personnel because of an overwhelming volume of requests
and funding constraints. GAO has reported problems with DOD's security clearance
processes since 1981. In January 2005, GAO designated DOD's program a high-risk
area because of longstanding delays in completing clearance requests and an
inability to accurately estimate and eliminate its clearance backlog.(snip)
The costs underlying a billing dispute between DOD and OPM are contributing
to further delays in the processing of new security clearance requests for
industry personnel. The dispute stems from the February 2005 transfer of DOD's
personnel security investigations function to OPM and associated costs for
which DOD agreed to reimburse OPM. Among other things, the two agencies' memorandum
of agreement for the transfer allows OPM to charge DOD annual price adjustments
plus a 25 percent premium, in addition to the rates OPM charges to other federal
government agencies. A January 20, 2006, memorandum from the Under Secretary
of Defense for Intelligence to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) questioned
the continued need for the premiums and requested mediation from the OMB.
According to DOD and OPM, OMB has directed the two agencies to continue to
work together to resolve the matter. The inspectors general for both DOD and
OPM are expected to report on the results of their investigations into the
dispute this summer.
“Funding constraints”? We're going to be out of hock for security clearances until summer? They're kidding, right? This is damn dangerous. I'd make some crack about Karl Rove right now, but this isn't funny.
Those are the facts, however, Justin
breaks down the GAO report
to a person. His name is Stephen Cambone, Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence,
who's too cheap to pay what's in DOD's contract.
OPM pointed to the contract. Cambone went crying to the White House, asking
for the Office of Management and Budget to intervene (in his favor, we can
safely assume). OMB told the two to go back outside, play nice and figure
it out on their own.To date, there's no resolution. The system's still shut down. Both DoD and
OPM are conducting separate investigations, GAO says, and they'll arrive at
conclusions in a few months. Meantime, work just won't get done. In other
words, the two are sulking in their respective corners — for the time being,
anyway.
Can we get some grown ups in the government, please?
It's bad enough that since 9/11 we've needed more capable and cleared agents
and officers than we've been able to vet. But now we've got every hot spot on earth aflame thanks to Bush's idea of a foreign policy. We've not had enough translators either, but that's a whole 'nother subject altogether.
But this is pure dereliction of duty on the part of the DOD. Or maybe Rummy's
just playing power games with national security. It wouldn't be the first time.
NOTE: Thanks to David NYC, who rightly slammed (see comments) my spelling in the title. It's been changed.
