The Office of the Inspector General issued its report entitled "Implementation of the Contractor Personnel Security Program In Selected Offices, Boards, and Divisions" to the Department and Congressional oversight committees on March 30, 2001. Because the report identifies specifics of the deficiencies in the Department's security controls over contract employees, the OIG issued this synopsis to report its findings without disclosing identifying details.

Introduction

The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has completed a review of security controls over contractors within the Offices, Boards, and Divisions (OBD). We examined whether the OBDs were implementing the Justice Management Division's (JMD) procedures for the Department's Contractor Personnel Security Program and whether the procedures provided effective controls over contractor personnel. Our assessment is based on a review of several fiscal year (FY) 1998-2000 contracts and selected contractor personnel.

Background

In July 1997, the Department amended the Justice Acquisition Regulations (JAR) to establish a Contractor Personnel Security Program. This action transferred the responsibility for contractor personnel security from JMD's Security and Emergency Planning Staff (SEPS) to the OBDs - a change that significantly altered the way the Department manages contract employee security. Prior to this July 1997 amendment, SEPS approved and monitored contractor personnel security clearances throughout the OBDs. Under the current program, the OBDs' Security Program Managers (SPM) are responsible for determining the security requirements for contracts and certifying that the contract requirements are adequate to ensure the security of departmental operations, information, and personnel. The JAR also states that the SPMs are responsible for monitoring and ensuring that a contract's personnel security requirements are accomplished. Thus, each of the SPMs is responsible for ensuring the personnel security requirements are met for each of their contracts.