Re: Bad Credit For A Government Security Clearance
- Key thing is to be 100% accurate on SF-86.
- If interviewed by an investigator do no dismiss the debts or try to blame 3rd party or creditors. Explain situation but take responsibility.
- If the debts are limited to a certain time frame explain that. Continual money issues over long period of time looks far worse than a one time issue . Long period of insolvency indicates a personal or value trait that may make the candidate suspectible to foriegn influence.
- It is good that you paid all your outstanding collections. While it doesn’t improve your score the govt actual cares about this. Unpaid collections show lack of responsibility.
How To Approach The Interview
Be completely honest.
The interview will be very searching, but it is not an interrogation and should not feel like one. Some of the questions will be intrusive but are asked because we are trying to find out if you are vulnerable to pressure.
Sometimes people have aspects of their lives that they are ashamed or embarrassed to tell us about. Usually these are of little or no security significance. They will generally not stop or restrict the granting of a security clearance.
The Vetting Officer will be open-minded and is not there to make moral judgements on peoples lifestyles. They will only be interested in assessing potential security risks. It is essential therefore that you are open and honest at all stages of the interview process.
If you have any doubts about the relevance of some questions you should ask the vetting officer why they are asking the question.
We will probably refuse your clearance, or subsequently withdraw it, if we later find out that you have lied or withheld information.
Making An Appointment Or Deployment
The required level of personnel screening must be granted prior to making an appointment. In the case of appointment from open or closed competitions, and in accordance with the Public Service Reform Act and the Public Service Employment Act, a candidate may be placed on an eligibility list while it is being determined if the candidate meets the security conditions of employment. Positions must be kept open for higher-ranking candidates on the eligibility list for whom security clearances have yet to be granted.
Employees being deployed pursuant to the PSEA must meet the security requirements of the position to which they are being deployed.
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What About Taxes And Security Clearances
Whether you owe taxes or simply have failed to file an income tax return , IRS problems can cost you your security clearance.
Again, it comes down to a matter of trust. A security clearance is a precious jewel granted by the federal government, and you have to care for it every day no sloppy missteps. If you cannot be counted on to comply in a timely matter with every citizens obligation to file on time, whats to say you wont abuse security rules and obligations that demand similar diligence?
This does not mean youre in trouble if you typically request an automatic extension to file, or if you dont file late routinely. Habitual scofflaws will have problems with the government, but occasional, minor missed deadlines especially backed up by plausible reasons may get a pass.
Time Investment In The Background Check Process
Getting cleared for Top Secret access that includes SCI is very time consuming but one way to speed up the process is to give the most accurate and complete information you can. Some people think that strategic omission of certain facts, incidents, associations, or other potentially negative information will be missed by the investigators.
But remember that investigators often have years of training and experience and recognize the patterns that show up when the applicant has omitted information that should have been shared with investigators.
Background checks are incredibly detailed and thorough your investigator will uncover omitted information one way or another whether via credit report checks, interviews with your associates, criminal or civil records, etc.
Joe Wallace is a 13-year veteran of the United States Air Force and a former reporter for Air Force Television News
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Reasons For Security Clearance Denials
Assuming that your rejection isnt due to faulty or missing information, there are a variety of reasons why you may be denied security clearance.
They include:
- Repeated alcohol abuse
- Pattern of criminal conduct/rule violations
Just to reiterate, providing false information during the clearance process is a GIGANTIC error. Investigators do not like to be lied to about alcohol, drugs or criminal records.
If you are up-front about your mistakes, your misconduct could be excused.
How To Complete Your Sf
This article is not designed to be an item-by-item instruction manual for completing the Standard Form 86 /electronic security clearance application, or eApp, but I hope to provide general information about completing the form and where to get help if you need it.
For most Federal Government civilian, military and contractor positions, employees are required to complete a SF 86. This form, and its equivalent electronic version , have evolved over the years and the latest version was revised in 2017. The length of the form can be intimidating, but it is a necessary item for investigation and suitability for clearance processing. When I applied for my first Secret clearance in 1972, the form used was one repeat one page long. When I applied for my first Top Secret clearance, the form was all of three pages. The current SF-86 is 136 pages. Welcome to the future.
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Guideline F: Financial Factors That Cause Concern
The Department of Defense examines a full range of human characteristics before it is satisfied that someone is worthy of gaining, or keeping, security clearance. Allegiance to the United States, foreign influence, drug and alcohol use, personal conduct, sexual behavior, even mental and emotional stability.
While many of these qualities are difficult to pinpoint with scientific accuracy, how a candidate for a security clearance manages money is readily apparent, which helps explain why financial mismanagement is the most common area of disqualification. Below, from the U.S. Code of Regulations, Title 32 National Defense, Part 147.8 are some of the financial factors that can hoist red flags on an application to achieve, or maintain, a security clearance:
The concern. An individual who is financially overextended is at risk of having to engage in illegal acts to generate funds. Unexplained affluence is often linked to proceeds from financially profitable criminal acts.
Conditions that could raise a security concern and may be disqualifying include: A history of not meeting financial obligations
Inability or unwillingness to satisfy debts
Unexplained affluence
Financial problems that are linked to gambling, drug abuse, alcoholism, or other issues of security concern.
While the Pentagon is right to worry about irregular or apparently haphazard financial histories, its investigators are also charged with burrowing deeper, to learn about mitigating circumstances .
What Is Security Clearance Form 86
If you want, or have, a job that requires you to know and share secret government information, you require a security clearance. Getting, or keeping, that clearance is a complicated, painstaking process, one that involves a polygraph test, a special background investigation, and criminal and financial background inspections.
To begin, you have to be sponsored by an approved source. Individuals cannot simply volunteer themselves for security clearances.
The Standard Form 86, Questionnaire for National Security Positions, is the form used by military personnel, government contractors, and government employees to apply for some level of security clearance: confidential, secret, top secret.
SF-86 is a combination grizzly bear and marathon. Its harrowing, lengthy and relentless, and it demands utter honesty and completeness from the applicant. You cannot fudge, cheat, lie, or even lie by omission and expect to earn that coveted, career-enhancing clearance.
Most of Clearance Form 86 deals with common questions about your background and experience, but there are seven pages dealing with your financial history.
Form 86 is used to do background investigations. Providing information is voluntary. However, if you do not provide requested information, the form states that it will adversely affect your eligibility for a national security position and eligibility for access to classified information.
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Challenging A Decision To Deny Or Revoke A Security Clearance
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service Actestablishes the Security Intelligence Review Committee as the formal review body in cases concerning denial of a security clearance. Pursuant to Section 42 of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act, this right of review is available to outside candidates, employees and those contracting with the government who are denied a security clearance by a deputy head that results in:
When a deputy head disagrees with a SIRC recommendation to grant or reinstate a security clearance, the Office of the National Security Advisor, Privy Council Office , must be consulted before a final decision is made. The Chairperson of SIRC must also be informed in writing of the final decision taken by a deputy head in such cases.
Rights Of Redress And Review
Any action or inaction that results in an individual not being granted a security status or clearance will negatively impact the individual and may have serious consequences, up to and including termination of employment or termination of a contract. Individuals who choose to have a decision reviewed may do so through the appropriate channels and must be informed in writing of the redress or review mechanisms available to them.
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Disclosure And Data Validation
Personal information collected in security screening forms must be disclosed to security screening service providers both in government and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police ) and outside government in order for the verifications, inquiries and assessments required for security screening to be conducted.
These verifications, inquiries and assessments can include the validation of personal information against operational records, data banks, data holdings, and intelligence sources for the purpose of assessing an individual’s reliability and/or loyalty.
Personal information, combined with the decision to grant, grant with a security waiver, deny, revoke or suspend a security status or clearance, may also be used to create a security profile for the purpose of managing Government of Canada credentials required to access information, assets and facilities . The relevant personal information banks need to reflect the purposes, uses and disclosure of information and be kept up to date.
Is Bad Credit A Disqualifier
Bad credit always has worried guardians of the security clearance gate but not so much that they were vigilant about staying on top of the sinking financial status of clearance-worthy service members. Under the Office of Personnel Management, credit checks of clearance holders happened every five to 10 years.
Even so, financial considerations accounted for roughly 75% of the more than 2,000 cases the Department of Defense heard January through November 2017. That seems unlikely to change.
Spurred by lapses that precipitated a massacre at Washingtons Navy Shipyard in 2013 and failed to address the reckless unreliability of leakers Edward Snowden and Army Pvt. Chelsea Manning, in June 2018, the White House announced it was reassigning administration of background checks to the Department of Defense.
The Pentagon was directed to be far more aggressive, including instructions to continuously monitor the financial status of service members with security clearances, reported the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in a release. This means that a past-due bill or an error on your credit report could jeopardize your clearance status.
National Security Adjudicative Guidelines, last updated in July 2017, are clear about the link between security clearances and well-managed finances:
Barely more than a month into the new program, 58 workers had their security clearances revoked as part of the Pentagons always-on monitoring system.
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Department And Agency Position
The standard security briefing covers general security requirements common to all individuals. Some departments and agencies may conduct briefings tailored to their operating and risk environment. Such briefings may provide specific details related to the protection of information, assets and facilities in the context of special duties, notably those related to security and intelligence.
Changes In Position Requirements
If new duties or tasks require an individual to have a higher level of screening in his or her own position, departments must make administrative arrangements to prohibit access to that higher level of sensitive information until such time as the subsequent screening process is successfully completed. If the new level is denied, departments must take action to remove the person from those functions, .
For upgrades, all checks required as part of the screening process and conducted as part of the initial process, must be repeated and reassessed, .
Where a fingerprint check of criminal records was initially required, it may be replaced by a CRNC for the upgrade.
If the new duties or tasks require a lower level of screening , departments must inform the individual of the new access requirement of the position or contract. The individual’s status or clearance is not cancelled but becomes inactive and may be reactivated in accordance with Section 4. This information must be reflected in a revisedSecurity Screening Certificate and Briefing Form. The Administrative Cancellation Form may also be used.
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Granting Or Denying A Security Clearance
Departments must assign authority at an appropriate level to grant security clearances. The authority to deny, revoke or suspend clearances may not be delegated below the level of deputy head.
The decision to grant a security clearance is recorded on the Security Screening Certificate and Briefing Form. The requesting office is then advised so that the proposed appointment or contract may proceed.
All records pertaining to security clearances are to be retained in standard information bank PSE 909, except where an alternate bank is identified in Info Source.
If the required level is denied, Section 42 of the CSIS Act requires that the individual be advised in writing within 10 days of the decision and also be informed of his or her right to complain to the Security Intelligence Review Committee . See Section 6 for additional information.
Pursuant to making a complaint, individuals will be provided with a statement of circumstance by SIRC.
Security Interview To Resolve Doubt
A security interview, in addition to being a standard component of enhanced security screening, can also be used as a means to resolve doubt or to address adverse information that is uncovered during security screening. A security interview provides an opportunity for the screening official and the individual to discuss any matters of concern and gives the individual the opportunity to explain the situation before a decision is rendered.
Individuals are to be provided with a statement summarizing the information available to enable them to be reasonably informed of the adverse or missing information, without disclosing any information that could injure national security or endanger the safety of any person, or that would be exemptible under the Privacy Act sections 18, 19, 20 and 21, and subsections 22 to 22.
When adverse information is uncovered as a result of a law enforcement inquiry conducted by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or police agency of jurisdiction, or a security assessment conducted by CSIS, the investigative body must be consulted to discuss parameters surrounding the disclosure of that information to the individual before the interview.
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No Impact On An Individual’s Credit History
PSPC’s inquiry is similar to that commonly done by private sector companies when screening employees. Credit checks conducted for the purpose of security screenings are masked, meaning there is no negative effect on an individual’s credit bureau file and a PSPC credit history request will not include the applicant’s credit score.
PSPC is committed to protecting the privacy of personal information.
The credit check results are kept confidential on the PSPC applicant’s security screening file. PSPC stores personnel information in accordance with the terms and conditions of the provision of the federal Directive on Privacy Practices.
An applicant’s credit history report information is never shared with the applicant’s company security officer or alternate. PSPC contacts the applicant directly whenever there is a need to validate financial information.
However, PSPC may share, through government approved secure means, an individual’s credit history report information with another Government of Canada department or agency in cases when an applicant’s reliability status or security clearance needs to be transferred.
Temporary Access To Sensitive Information Assets Or Facilities
Situations may arise when there is an urgent or compelling need to temporarily provide an individual with access to sensitive information, assets or facilities that is beyond what their current security status or clearance allows them to access. In such cases, after assessing the risks associated with doing so, departments or agencies may decide to provide the individual temporary access to information, assets or facilities.
The granting of temporary access does not allow, under any circumstances, access to compartmented information or to information for which access is restricted in accordance with international agreements or special caveats. If such access is required, the associated security screening prerequisites and other requirements must first be complied with .
Temporary access to classified information for urgent or compelling needs must be limited to less than four months. It is not to be used as a substitute for conducting the required security screening activities for the individual’s status or clearance to be upgraded. Measures should be taken to initiate the upgrade process if it is expected that access may be required for longer than four months.
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