Eligibility for accessing classified information was revoked in 2009-13 for more than 18,500 military and civilian employees and contractors working for the Department of Defense, according to an audit released Monday.
The DOD’s data, however, was too unreliable to assess the department’s overall handling of revocations during that five-year period, according to the Government Accountability Office, the Congressional auditing agency that published the report.
While the DOD was able to provide the number of and reasons for revocations, other important data was missing or incomplete in the department’s database system.
The report was one of a series being conducted by the federal government as the result of recent high-profile “insider threats,” particularly the September 2013 Washington Navy Yard shooting rampage by a civilian contractor with security clearance to the restricted area. Previous reports have examined the processes used in granting security clearances, while this study examined circumstances under which eligibility was revoked.
During the five-year period the GAO analyzed, the DOD revoked eligibility for more than 16,000 military and civilian employees and for another 2,500 contractors.
Comprising some 9,300 revocations, Army military personnel far exceeded the Navy’s 1,807 revocations, the service with the second-highest number.
The report examined the most common reasons for revoking clearances by the DOD for fiscal year 2013. The top causes for civilian and military personnel were criminal conduct, involvement with drugs and personal conduct. Top reasons for contractors were financial considerations and personal and criminal conduct.
The report also examined revocations by the Department of Homeland Security, although only for fiscal year 2013.
About 125,000 DHS civilian and military employees were eligible to access classified information as of March 2014. The agency revoked eligibility for 113 personnel during fiscal year 2013, or less than 1 percent, the report said.
The total number of DOD and DHS employees affected by the revocation process is unknown, however, because the two departments “could not provide some data, such as the number of individuals who received a proposal to revoke their eligibility for access to classified information,” the report found.
A DHS official told the GAO that “many” employees resign before the final determination is made to revoke clearance.
The GAO found that data maintained by the DOD’s Joint Personnel Adjudication System, which is intended to track its records for personnel security management and actions, was unreliable.
In some cases, data fields concerning revocations on JPAS were partially completed or incomplete.
“For example, although more than 16,000 military and federal civilian employees had their personnel security clearances revoked from fiscal years 2009 through 2013, JPAS data reflected that fewer than 3,000 individuals had received a statement of reasons, which is [the Defense Department’s] initial proposal to revoke a personnel security clearance, because the JPAS field to record this information had not been filled,” the report stated.
“Until DOD takes steps to ensure that information is recorded and updated in its systems, the department will continue to lack visibility over the security clearance revocation and appeal process, which may hinder its ability to effectively oversee these processes.”
olson.wyatt@stripes.com
Twitter: @WyattWOlson
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