Suitability Executive Agent (SuitEA)
The Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is the Suitability and Credentialing Executive Agent, per Executive Order 13467, as amended. OPM is also responsible for the minimum standards of fitness based on character and conduct for appointment in any other position in the excepted service of the executive branch, except for certain intelligence agencies and positions where OPM is statutorily precluded from prescribing such standards. The program within OPM that carries out these functions is named the Suitability Executive Agent, or SuitEA, and those functions include:
- responsibility for suitability and fitness by prescribing suitability standards and minimum standards of fitness for employment;
- prescribing position designation requirements with regard to risk to the efficiency and integrity of the service;
- prescribing applicable investigative standards, policies, and procedures for suitability and fitness;
- prescribing suitability and fitness reciprocity standards;
- taking suitability actions in cases that warrant the imposition of a Government-wide debarment action;
- promoting reciprocal recognition of suitability or fitness determinations among the agencies;
- approving and renewing agencies’ requests to administer polygraphs in connection with appointment in the competitive service;
- continuing review of agency programs for suitability and fitness vetting to determine whether they are being implemented according to EO 13467;
- prescribing performance standards and a system of oversight for any suitability or fitness function delegated by the Director to the head of another agency, including uniform and consistent policies and procedures to ensure the effective, efficient, timely, and secure completion of delegated functions; and
- supporting matters of development and deliverance of training related to the National Training Standards for Suitability Adjudicators.
