According to a recent Washington Post article, the federal government can’t conduct background checks fast enough on people seeking security clearances. One industry group says there are more than 700,000 applicants in the backlog.
That figure came from the Aerospace Industry Association and reflects an increase from the 2016 backlog of 570,000 unfinished clearances reported by the Office of Personnel Management.
A federal official said earlier this year that the process for securing security clearances at the top-secret level took at least 450 days to finish.
OPM stopped issuing reports on the backlog after the Office of Management and Budget issued a memo that seeks to reduce reporting requirements for federal agencies.
This delay in federal background checks causes problems for the government contractors who are trying to hire personnel to work classified jobs. It also effects the requiring activity that has to wait for the final background check to get the contractor personnel working.
I’ve spoken with several contractors that said personnel move on to other jobs because they can’t afford to wait until the clearance process is complete to start working. So contractors (and the government) are losing talented individuals because of the length of time these background checks take.
Depending on the agency, there may be a process whereby the contractor can be given an interim clearance that allows them to begin work before the full investigation is completed. I’ve worked in offices where this was done and it usually took approval from the chief of the requiring activity or even the commander.
So if you are bidding on a project that requires these clearances, you (and your potential personnel) need to be aware of how long it may take and factor that into the time to start performance.