Top-secret clearance checks falsified

[Geee]

Washington Times:

Federal authorities responsible for granting security clearances to government employees and contractors are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars investigating the investigators.

Government inspectors say they have undertaken a broader campaign in recent years to root out fraud in background checks as more national security clearances are being sought than ever before.

Overall, court records reviewed by The Washington Times show at least 170 confirmed falsifications of interviews or record checks and more than 1,000 others that couldn’t be verified. The background investigators, whose work helps determine who gets top-secret security clearance, were submitting forms saying they conducted interviews or verified official documents when they never did.

“The monetary loss sustained by the government does not, nor cannot, represent the cost associated with potential compromise of our nation’s security and the trust of the American people in its government’s workforce,” Kathy L. Dillaman, associate director in charge of investigations at the Office of Personnel Management, wrote in a victim-impact statement for a recent court case involving a convicted investigator.

Douglas Shontz, a national security researcher at the Rand Corp. who had conducted back ground checks at the Defense Department, said background investigations used to be the purview of retired FBI agents and police detectives. That has changed as more and more contractors and employees require security clearances. Many of the background checks are now outsourced.

“You have a huge push to get people in the door,” he said.

Mr. Shontz said that, in general, background interviews with neighbors, former employers, associates and others help determine whether someone could be more vulnerable to taking bribes or likely to talk too freely about sensitive government information.

“They can highlight potential issues for follow-up,” he said.