Personnel Clearances. Key Factors for Reforming the Security Clearance Process

Abstract

Efforts to reform personnel security clearance processes should consider, among other things, the following four key factors: (1) a strong requirements-determination process, (2) quality in all clearance processes, (3) metrics to provide a fuller picture of clearance processes, and (4) long-term funding requirements of security clearance reform. In February 2008, GAO noted that a sound requirements process is important because requesting a clearance for a position in which it will not be needed, or in which a lower-level clearance would be sufficient, will increase both costs and investigative workload unnecessarily. For example, the cost of obtaining and maintaining a top secret clearance for 10 years is approximately 30 times greater than the cost of obtaining and maintaining a secret clearance for the same period. Also, changing a position's clearance level from secret to top secret increases the investigative workload for that position about 20-fold.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 22, 2008
Accession Number
ADA481807

Entities

People

  • Brenda S. Farrell

Organizations

  • United States Government Accountability Office

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Business Administration
  • Commerce
  • Congress
  • Counterterrorism
  • Department Of Homeland Security
  • Employment
  • Governments
  • Homeland Security
  • National Governments
  • National Security
  • Personnel Management
  • President (United States)
  • Public Administration
  • Security
  • Security Personnel
  • United States
  • United States Government

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Aviation Safety and Air Traffic Management
  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • Systems Analysis and Design