U.S. Office of Personnel Management - Ensuring the Federal Government has an effective civilian workforce

E-Gov
E-Clearance: Goals

Improve the efficiency and speed of granting Federal Government security clearances by:

• Improving agency accountability for maintaining and providing quality data and processes.
  

Create a common, secure and standardized source of investigative information to support employee assignment decisions. The goal of 80% completion by January 31, 2003 was achieved and the remaining clearances are now being added.

• Milestone - OMB issues memorandum to civilian agency heads instructing them to automate their clearance information and load it into OPM's Security/Suitability Investigations Index (SII).
• Milestone - OPM amends programs to handle the input and output of clearance information in the SII.
• Milestone - Agencies load their clearance information (OPM data enters manual records one time only for agencies, as necessary, in order to get the information into the syste

• Reducing duplicate investigative efforts through reciprocity and access to existing information.
  

Connect OPM's Security/Suitability Investigations Index (SII) with Department of Defense (DoD) Joint Personnel Adjudication System (JPAS) thus allowing, for the first time, one search to locate investigative and clearance information located in either the SII or JPAS.

• Milestone - DOD and OPM created a physical link between JPAS and the SII in December 2002.
• Milestone - OPM and DOD collectively develop programs to conduct real time queries of each other's system

Cause civilian agencies to "load" their clearance information into the SII in order to centralize the data.

• Milestone - OMB issues memorandum to civilian agency heads instructing them to automate their clearance information and load it into OPM's Security/Suitability Investigations Index (SII).
• Milestone - OPM amends programs to handle the input and output of clearance information in the SII.
• Milestone - Agencies load their clearance information (OPM data enters manual records one time only for agencies, as necessary, in order to get the information into the system).
  

Ensure all e-Clearance systems have appropriate privacy and security protections necessary to assure that the data is adequately protected.

• Milestone - Consult with e-Authentication and fold system security requirements into the architecture.
  

• Improving contractor and government employee efficiency, recruitment and retention through reduced wait time for clearances.

Allow individuals to complete and submit forms electronically to security personnel and for security personnel to submit electronically to their investigative supplier, which will reduce the time to fill out forms from hours to minutes and cut overall processing time substantially.

• Milestone - Develop prototype e-QIP (electronic Questionnaires for Investigations Processing).
• Milestone - Beta test e-QIP.
• Milestone - Deploy e-QIP Governmentwide.
  

Reduce future paper investigations records to electronic versions and make them universally accessible to authorized users.

• Milestone - Study cost benefit of imaging (or some other format of electronic record) newly created investigative records.
• Milestone - Study cost benefit of imaging other, related personnel security records.

• Improving opportunities for federal employment and contractors.
  

Allow individuals to complete and submit forms electronically to security personnel and for security personnel to submit electronically to their investigative supplier, which will reduce the time to process forms from hours to minutes and cut overall processing time substantially.

• Milestone - Develop prototype e-QIP (electronic Questionnaires for Investigative Processing).
• Milestone - Beta test e-QIP.
• Milestone - Deploy e-QIP Governmentwide.