350 cases of faulty background investigations from private contractors, including special agents for the US Office of Personnel Management from previous years were documented.
This clearly describes what weaknesses the system has in granting federal security clearances as claimed by some lawmakers.
(Reuters) Government officials gave an assurance that certain actions were already taken to investigators who made claims of reviewing said records. These 350 falsified documents only shows the amount of work passed on to either private and government contractors for background investigation.
It has been reported by the Government Accountability Office during a Congress Committee last June, that for 2 million background investigations, OPM's released budget was over $1B for year 2011. However, these faulty system practices cleared employees without proper procedure.
Reuters was able to get some details of highly questionable cases that were cleared. Here's a few;
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An investigator who was guilty of making false statements in checks for applicants seeking "top secret" clearances for jobs in the Air Force, Army, Navy and US Treasury.
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11 convictions involved special agents for OPM.
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Seven convictions were of employees of USIS, a Virginia-based company who's beig scrutinized recently for its role in vetting former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, and Washington Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis.
Court documents showed that out of those USIS investigators, 2 of them have more than four dozen each of submitted flawed background check reports to OPM.
OPM's Actions against this cracks.
USIS is under an ongoing investigation. No one would like to comment on this case on both parties.
Severe punishment was given to an investigator who declined a plea agreement and would rather go to court trial. This investigator was found guilty of six counts of making false statements and sentenced to 27 months in prison.
Court records show that those who plead to an agreement, were sentenced to probation and community service.
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