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(USGovernment-News.Com, July 11, 2013 ) San Francisco, CA -- Prior to the Edward Snowden leaking of national security information, he was twice cleared by the federal government's background check system. The system is in place to snare individuals exactly like him to avoid such situations from occurring. Both the CIA and then the National Security Agency each cleared him to work in proximity to sensitive information.
Snowden's path to secrets on the national level has raised particular concern regarding the system that outsources government information that is considered necessary to background checks.
"You can't outsource national security," said Robert Baer, a former CIA veteran who worked in a succession of agency stations in the Mideast. "As long as we depend on the intel-industrial complex for vetting, we're going to get more Snowdens."
The company that holds the largest share is under federal investigation into criminal violation allegations regarding the oversight of background checks, according to sources.
Even with the new congressional scrutiny regarding the issue, the government has appeared wedded to the current screen system. That means three-quarters of the government's background checks are handled by a private company with over 45% handled by U.S. Investigation Services (USIS), according to the Office of Personnel Management, which is in charge of the government background checks.
The USIS started with 700 former government employees checked since 1996. It then was operated by a private equity fund, and covers much of the background check industry, amassing over $195 million in government payments in 2012.
Privatization began during the Clinton administration, which kept farming out work to various contractors. The Defense Department then turned its screening work over to the OPM a decade ago. The OPM had success screening properly, with the average cost of background investigations rising from $581 to $882 in a six-year period. A $1 billion “revolving fund” was then paid by the agencies at the federal level and has remained off limits when it comes to audits. Only recently did the White House decide that it would provide inspection of the 2014 budget.
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