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The executive branch has been unable to process personnel security clearances within established timeliness objectives—the percentage of executive branch agencies meeting investigation and adjudication objectives for initial secret clearances, initial top secret clearances, and periodic reinvestigations decreased from fiscal years 2012 through 2018. Further, there is a significant backlog of background investigations to determine clearance eligibility, which the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) National Background Investigations Bureau (NBIB) reports to be approximately 528,000 cases as of March 2019. GAO added the government-wide personnel security clearance process to the High-Risk List in 2018 due to significant challenges related to the timely processing of security clearances, completing the development of quality measures, the implementation of key initiatives of the security clearance reform effort, and IT security.

National Background Investigations Bureau’s Backlog of Background Investigations, August 2014 to March 2019

The Security Clearance, Suitability, and Credentialing Performance Accountability Council (PAC) is the government-wide entity responsible for overseeing and driving the implementation of security clearance reform, among other reform efforts. In April 2019, the President signed an Executive Order  providing for the transfer of the background investigation function from NBIB to the Department of Defense (DOD), to begin no later than June 24, 2019. It is unclear what financial and investigative resources are required for the transfer, as an implementation plan has not yet been completed. In addition to ensuring a smooth, cost-effective, and timely transfer, the PAC faces challenges in four key areas: 

• Clearance processing delays. Our analysis of timeliness data reported by specific executive branch agencies showed that the percent of executive branch agencies meeting established timeliness objectives for initial security clearances decreased from fiscal years 2012 through 2018, and reporting has been limited. For example, 59 percent of the executive branch agencies reviewed by GAO reported meeting investigation and adjudication timeliness objectives for initial top secret clearances in fiscal year 2012, compared with 8 percent in fiscal year 2018.
• Lack of quality measures. While the executive branch has taken some steps to address government-wide performance measures for the quality of background investigations—including establishing quality assessment standards and a quality assessment reporting tool—it is unclear when this effort will be completed. At minimum, the PAC needs to establish a milestone for the completion of this effort. Furthermore, the executive branch has not taken steps to develop performance measures for the quality of adjudications.
• Security clearance reform delays. The executive branch has reformed many parts of the personnel security clearance process, such as establishing common adjudicative criteria to be used when determining eligibility for a security clearance. However, some long-standing key initiatives remain incomplete —such as completing plans to fully implement and monitor continuous evaluation of eligibility for a security clearance.
• IT security. DOD is responsible for developing, operating, and continuously modernizing systems that support background investigation processes, and officials stated it is identifying system capabilities. However, DOD is concerned about the security of connecting to OPM’s legacy systems since a 2015 data breach compromised OPM’s background investigation systems and files for 21.5 million individuals. As of December 2018, OPM had not taken action on recommendations to update its security plans, evaluate its security control assessments, implement additional training opportunities, and update performance measures.

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