Summary

In response to a congressional request, GAO provided update information on how federal security programs affect federal employees and contractor personnel.

GAO found that: (1) about 3.2 million federal and contractor employees held security clearances at the end of 1987, which represented a decrease of about 13 percent from 1985; (2) the decrease resulted from a continuing clearance reduction program in the Department of Defense (DOD); (3) although the total number of clearances decreased, the total cost of background investigations increased; (4) although some agencies had their own disclosure forms, the standard federal disclosure form constituted 91 percent of federal employee nondisclosure agreements; (5) since 1981, federal employees with sensitive compartmented information access have been required to sign nondisclosure agreements with lifetime prepublication review requirements; (6) a 1984 suspension of that provision had little effect on prepublication review requirements and the agencies reported that 594,000 federal and contractor employees had signed prepublication-review agreements by 1987; (7) agencies reported 144 unauthorized disclosures of classified information during 1986 and referred 48 for investigation, and reported 177 disclosures during 1987 and referred 53 for investigation; (8) the number of polygraph tests increased 94 percent between 1984 and 1987, with 11 agencies reporting 29,931 polygraph tests in 1987; and (9) DOD increased its polygraph tests from 45 in 1981 to 20,644 in 1987.