Reengineering the Security Clearance Process: Initiatives and Accomplishments in Fiscal Year 2004:

The Office of Personnel Security and Suitability (PSS) is the office within the Bureau of Diplomatic Security responsible for completing background investigations for those serving the Department of State domestically and overseas. PSS revised its background investigation policies, procedures, and business practices and implemented several initiatives to bring the customer an improved product in less time. 

First Quarter FY04 (10/1/2003-12/31/2003)

§         Initiated the PSS Customer Service Center (CSC) in November 2003, responding to over 1800 email and 900 telephone inquiries within its first quarter of operation. 

The CSC provides a central point of contact for Diplomatic Security security clearance-related matters. The CSC can be reached at securityclearance@state.gov or by calling toll free at 1-866-643-INFO (4636).

§         Formed the Interim Clearance Coordinator Unit (ICC) in October 2003 to expand the availability of interim clearances for positions and expedite the clearance process both domestically and worldwide. The ICC received over 165 interim security clearance requests and granted 119 by the end of the quarter.  The ICC has drastically improved the tracking and issuance of interim clearances to State Department personnel.

§         Strengthened the process for granting reciprocal clearances to individuals joining the Department who already hold clearances from other agencies. As long as the employee’s last background investigation is not older than 5 years and there hasn’t been a break in federal service longer than 2 years, a clearance can normally be granted immediately.  

§         In its first quarter of operation, the PSS Periodic Reinvestigations Division used email and the OPM Electronic Questionnaires for Investigations Processing (e-QIP) to notify over 3000 employees that it was time for their 5-year periodic reinvestigation. At any given time, there are over 300 employees currently editing their responses. Over 720 employees have already submitted their forms electronically and had their investigations initiated. The Department of State is the first of 17 investigative service providers now using e-QIP.

Second Quarter FY04 (1/1/2004-3/31/2004):

§         Integrated the Report Management sub-System (RMS), a web-enabled application developed to significantly improve the time service of investigations and reduce case backlog. RMS improves the communication link between field investigators and headquarters during background investigations. PSS began using the database in two domestic locations on February 3, 2004. A full domestic deployment was scheduled for April 15, 2004.

Third Quarter FY04 (4/01/04-6/30/04):

§         A full domestic field office deployment of the new PSS Report Management sub-System (RMS) occurred April 13, 2004, ahead of schedule. Currently all domestic leads for personnel security background investigations are conducted using the system.

§         As of June 1, 2004, PSS successfully completed over 2000 periodic reinvestigations using the OPM e-QIP system. With this success, PSS is currently exploring new ways to incorporate e-QIP’s use in other investigation types other than periodic reinvestigations.

§         The Interim Clearance Coordinator (ICC) unit continues to grant interim clearances to Department employees and interns to facilitate HR needs in hiring for special programs. Since its inception in October 2003, the ICC has granted over 1200 interim clearances.