Nuclear Security

DOE's Progress on Reducing Its Security Clearance Work Load Gao ID: RCED-93-183 August 12, 1993

The Atomic Energy Act of 1954 requires the Department of Energy (DOE), which runs the nation's nuclear weapons program and other sensitive undertakings, to run security checks on persons with access to classified information. DOE has cut its backlog of personnel security clearances from about 135,000 cases in 1988 to about 1,000 cases in June 1993--a 99-percent reduction. Although during the late 1980s DOE was not timely in processing clearances for its contractors' employees, the 20 contractor representatives who GAO interviewed could not recall or document significant problems caused by clearance delays. Most of the delays were characterized as inconveniences that the contractors "worked around." Virtually all the representatives said that they were pleased with DOE's current clearance processing times. DOE has not, however, effectively managed its workload of cases involving questionable information. DOE, although committed to reduce the processing time of these cases, has yet to establish adequate controls over contractors' preemployment checks to screen out unsuitable applicants. According to DOE security officials, some contractors are not verifying information on prospective employees, such as education, personal references, past employers, and credit and criminal records.

GAO found that: (1) DOE has decreased its personnel security workload and reinvestigation backlog since 1988; (2) as of June 1993, DOE had reduced its reinvestigation backlog by more than 99 percent; (3) programmatic changes within the nuclear weapons complex could reduce the annual clearance workload; (4) contractors complained of the lengthy delays in processing clearances after DOE instituted its expanded reinvestigation program in 1985; (5) contractors could not recall any significant adverse effects on their operations or DOE programs due to the processing delays; and (6) DOE increased its staff and reduced the number of clearances to expedite its security clearance process.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Team: Phone:


The Justia Government Accountability Office site republishes public reports retrieved from the U.S. GAO These reports should not be considered official, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Justia.