OPM Congressional Budget Justification and Annual Performance Plan

U.S. Office of Personnel Management

FY 2000
Budget Justification/Performance Plan

(Revolving Fund Account - continued)
*Additional Information Available on the Next Page*

INVESTIGATIONS SERVICE
(dollar amounts in thousands)

RESOURCES	FY 1998 Actual	FY 1999 Estimate	FY 2000 Request	FY 2000 Change
Obligations	$102,007	$87,713	$89,748	$2,035
Full-Time Equivalents	32	35	35	---

DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITY

The Investigations Service has investigations conducted for other Federal agencies through a contract with an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) corporation formed mainly with former staff from the Investigations Service of OPM.. These investigations are carried out on a reimbursable basis to provide agencies with the information necessary to determine whether to grant security clearances to individuals occupying or being appointed to sensitive national security positions or for public trust positions. OPM will also continue to investigate employees of contractors for the Department of Energy. The extent of the investigation is determined by the level of risk or sensitivity in the position held (or to be held) by an individual.

OPM also furnishes National Agency Checks and National Agency Checks and Inquiries, as well as Special Agreement Checks for the Postal Service. Both the employee-owned investigative company and OPM continued to meet high workload demands from agencies with no decrease in the quality of investigations.

Executive Order 12968 promulgated new investigative standards which reduce the coverage requirements of some investigations. This reduction in coverage requirements, coupled with a contractor price reduction, allowed OPM to drop the price of its most expensive product by close to 15 percent in FY 1998. OPM reduced the price of its most expensive product by another 12.5 percent for FY 1999 and the price of the standard background investigation by approximately

8 percent. These reductions will save agencies close to $3 million each fiscal year based on current workload estimates.

The employee-owned company, US Investigations Services, Inc. continues to pay about $10 million in Federal and state income taxes each year, tax revenue which did not exist when the operation was wholly Federal.

Specific functions include:

Manage and provide oversight of the contract with the ESOP company for conducting background and other investigations for OPM’s customer agencies;

Liaison with customer agencies for case billing;

Maintain the Security Investigations Index (SII);

Ensure the integrity of the Personnel Investigations Processing System (PIPS) data base and related software; manage systems software support for the data center that processes PIPS;

Assure case quality to customer agencies through contract oversight and case audits; and

Recover operating costs through fiscal management and proper case pricing.

In order perform our responsibilities, IS recruits highly-experienced individuals from other Federal agencies who have hands-on experience in supervising and operating a National security investigations program. This staff includes people with detailed experience at the program level; and with experience in contract oversight, quality control, customer service, budget/product pricing, FOI/PA, and information technology.

FY 2000 Priority

IS’ priority for FY 2000 is to oversee the work of the investigative contractor to ensure that the quality and timeliness of investigations is maintained for our customers (IS Goal 4).

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Web Page Created 14 May 1999