Military Security Clearance

[Amy26]

I am a contractor as well and it actually annoys me that I have to dress up and look presentable to "the client" while the rest of the agency people can come in wearing flip flops, shorts and every other manner of inappropriate work attire. I notice that the high up people like the generals and the CFO type people are very professional and clean cut but the support staff is just disappointing...at least the ones I've seen/interacted with. I was sitting in an area surrounded by agency employees and their boss. They were all chit chatting all day long, talking on the phone for hours at a time...their boss had to ride them CONSTANTLY. She was consntantly calling them or coming to their desks asking about task a, b, c what they were doing where they were at... I'm amazed anything gets done.

That is a classic story! I don't have any cool gov't stories but I did used to work for a telecomm company many years ago and a certain individual who worked in the accounting department had been there for years and years...she had gained a lot of respect in the company and was one of those "go to" people for whenever you didn't know how to accomplish something. Personality wise she was a biatch and dressed like a hooker....anyhoo.... they discovered after doing a deep dive financial audit that someone had been embezzeling from the company over the years. Guess who it was! She had set up her own company in the financial system and had been writing herself checks for like 5 years.

I actually blame the company because this 1 person had too many rights. The apparently had never heard of "separation of duties". She had check signing authorization and access to the system to set up accounts, do the accounts payable/receivable etc...

She promptly got fired and I believe she's in jail now.

[DSIG]

Sounds like you are embedded with the stellar non-performs, just like I am. With the dress code, its a shame that the interns are better dressed than the tenured govt employees. I work in a cubicle environment and can hear everything that goes on. The one next to me is always yelling at her mother or kid or something. She is always on the phone with the bank about unauthorized charges to her debit card. Sometimes I cant concentrate and if I have to write a technical paper or something I have to stop typing to think.

The embezzlers and launderers eventually get caught, especially if you are doing it against the govt. I perform tech evals for contracts and was doing one on a proposal that didn't quite look right. I suspected fraud (close to millions of dollars worth) and reported it and nobody seemed to want to do anything. They were concerned about harming a small business. So, I took my suspicions to the feds but did not hear from them for over 2-months. They called one day to tell me they had enough to move forward with an investigation. The investigation is pending. I hope I did the taxpayers some justice. A govt person in my position would not blow the whistle. They would maintain the status quo and they may not even pick up what I picked up on, which was blatantly fraudulent. Hey, I dont need some e-mail audit trail coming back to my inbox where they see that I had knowledge and did not report it.

[Amy26]

Yes, can totally relate on the cubicle set up. I feel like a yo yo though. Since I started in April I have been moved around like 3 times. They first set me up around the agency employees I mentioned before and was far away from my other fellow contractors. Then, they moved me to an entirely different building in DC and have been made to shuttle back and forth between the buildings for meetings etc...nobody wants to come to my building ... lol. And now tomorrow, I get to move back again! They finally realized that I needed a permanent spot over there....except now I get to sit with my fellow contractors in these little itty bitty sorry excuses for cubicles that give you absolutely no privacy between the persons sitting on either side of you.

Luckily... I get to work from home 2-3 days a week!

I guess when I move back over there though I'm gonna actually have to start working and not trolling forums all day.... sigh.

[DSIG]

I was wondering how were able to respond so quickly. Typical no govt oversight..haha! I have the same thing...ugh no privacy. The cubicles are open and you can just roll your chair out to the hall and participate in non-work related conversations. One guy comes to work Fridays but does not work--he calls it fellowship Friday.

I played musical cubicles my first two years to at least 4 cubicles. Shoot, I even moved my crap 1-week before I had my baby..with an oversized belly. The girl that sits at my old desks still gets calls for me. They dont transfer your number when you move cubicles. You just inherit the analog line which is at your new cubicle. No caller ID, none of that.

[Amy26]

30 more minutes and then I get to go home yay! ;)

Luckily they do transfer our phones here... so I won't have that problem!

[falconer33]

I reposted this from another question:

May be a bit late for the question but here it is. I'm looking at the possibility of needing a Q clearance (TS) and I had a chapter 7 on 2005 so I've been looking at all possible sources of info. This is what I found:

A bankruptcy on its own will not cause you to lose or prevent you from gaining a clearance of any level.

What caused the bk is of prime importance: emergency, out of your control or stupid decisions

What you did after the bk is also important: great credit, pay your bills and maintain a sensible lifestyle or right back in debt

Time since bk is important: I've seen 3 years accepted but within a year not. They want to see a pattern in your financial habits

Each agency has its own requirements: DoD, DOE, CIA etc all have their own investigations and some will be more forgiving than others. They also will not accept each others clearances for the most part (a person with a clearance in the FBI will have to get one from the CIA to work with the CIA, stupid all the way around)

I held a TS/SCI years ago and the command 's policy was let them know before filing a bk. Reason, reason, reason was the question.

As far as being revoked, when it comes time for your periodic investigation (5 yr TS, 10yr secret, 15yr confidential) they will find out so its better to get ahead of the question because they will look at it as if you were hiding something.

Great site that has different clearance appeals and the reason/judgement:

http://www.dod.mil/dodgc/doha/

Hope this helps someone!

PS-TELL THEM EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Being honest will go a long way. Plus THEY WILL FIND OUT!

[DSIG]

Falconer, all good feedback. I didn't know that the different agencies did not honor each other's clearances, but no surprises there. I consider that fraud/waste/abuse. The same investigators are probably used to investigate clearances for all these agencies. They are over-worked as it is. This is why it takes over a year to adjudicate a clearance. Then again, they may each have their own investigation criteria.

The cause of you bk filing is very important. I wanted to add to your point, and this is directed at combat veterans specifically. I am a combat vet. I returned from Iraq 4 years ago and here I am filing ch 13 bk.

My unsecure debt was accumulated in a short period of time and on the heels of many many life changing events. My mom died, 3 months later I deployed, 6 months after I re-deployed I got married and 3 days after my honeymoon my father committed suicide. Now I have a child.

Before the deployment I put in a request for a hardship discharge in order to care for my father and was denied the discharge. The Army in all their wisdom concluded that my father had a support network to care for him. Well, they were wrong. He waited for me to return from Iraq and get married and then he gave up on life.

When I told my attorney all this he told me to go get help because he felt I needed it but he wanted a diagnosis for the trustee to explain how I accumulated so much debt.

I went to a VA psychologist who specializes in combat PTSD. I am still in treatment with him. He said that combat and my other life changing events are related to my debt and he also told me that he can help me submit the claim with the VA for a disability benefit since I have all the documentation from the army for the hardship discharge denial.

The most important thing he told me is that he has treated patients who worked for agencies like the FBI and Secret Service and were also concerned with losing their clearances. Their treatment and documented diagnosis from the psychologist helped them keep their clearance because he was able to document certain causes and effects.

If you are a combat veteran and you are going through a bankruptcy please consider receiving VA treatment. Sometimes when we are in a financial mess we are also in denial about how we got there. The treatment is a positive step toward helping yourself.