I worked as a Paralegal before working as a BI. I worked with Judges, Lawyers and expert witness doctors. This job is by far the most stressful and worst of the two. While working with lawyers/judges, doctors alone can be unbearable to say the least, working as a BI is stress 8 hours/day or more.
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Now that’s a real shame and a major loss for the whole BI process. I say that as a former federal employee.
There is a wealth of talent and experience on the private side that is totally absent from the federal side. Former LEOs and 1811 S/A’s don’t become OPM BI’s. The private side also has a wide range of talent of people with prior experience in military, business, finance, insurance, etc., that couldn’t or wouldn’t be a FT federal government hire.
There has never been a instance of success of a federal government program independent of the dynamic U.S. private sector. From both world wars to manned spaceflight to the emerging U.S. Space Force.
It was a major positive that DoD took back the BI program from essentially a large federal gov’t HR agency (aka, OPM). I expect they, DoD, more than any other federal agency know the importance of the private sector and thus will find a crucial role for it in the new process. A role that helps DCSA and the BI process rather than helping the bottomline of private equity firms and the bonuses of their C-Suite insensates.
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We have 7 to 8 days to complete a full T5 Priority case. I find this disturbing as these investigations should not be rushed. We are told it is “the customer”. Upper leadership always shift the blame on the customer. But, I would assume DCSA wants a quality investigation, not rushed. So, I would like to know if it is true that the customer wants the case back asap and that is why we are only given 1 week. It’s just so wrong and putting a lot of undue stress on investigators, not to mention it is dangerous.
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BS is what it is. The customer sets the ACD but also The “customer” expects 20 days per case. The 7 or 8 day deal is your company trying to have great timeliness in order to be number 1. It’s all BS and these companies competing against each other for $$. It will all eventually blow up in everyone’s face as soon as there is another “Snowden” deal and the Investigators will get the blame. Oh BTW, my former company allows the 20 days but prefers 15 days in process on average.
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A lot of people on this forum reference Snowden and the possibility of another Snowden as a criticism of rushed, shoddy investigations (or CE). IMHO Snowden is a black swan. And the BI process is not designed to smoke out such a person no matter how thorough. I’m not sure you could even devise a process that could.
Case in point is the Boston Marathon bombers, the Tsarnaev brothers. Foreign intelligence and law enforcement agencies tipped off the CIA and FBI that the brothers were making multiple trips to Dagestan and meeting with known jihadis. The FBI checked them out, interviewed them, and essentially declared them a non-threat. Right before the brothers set off bombs and killed and maimed many Americans on the streets of Boston.
No, the biggest danger in shoddy investigations is not the undetectable black swan but rather the million other people going through the process.
The BI process is dependent of applicants and their associates being forthright, to be willing and transparent in providing information no matter how embarrassing or negative. People do this because they have faith that the process. That process is legit. And the only thing that can establish this reputation for legitimacy is a professional and smart investigator and a show of force, i.e., checking records and interviewing people (“Some guy from the government came by and asked me all kinds of questions about you”).
Rushed, shoddy investigations vitiates the legitimacy of the BI process for the millions involved in the process— directly or indirectly (subjects/sources) . This in turn decreases the amount of important information provided thus further deceasing the quality of the investigation.
CE eviscerates the BI process. Throws the signal out with the noise and completely eliminates the means and sources of the most valuable information. But I guess CE is a quicker process, so there is that.
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I can say quite certainly, that if DCSA were to do away with or dramatically decrease the use of contractors/companies, the federal investigators would have the case load back up to 400,000 in 6 months.
Here’s why: The feds have zero incentive to get things done. They can take a week to complete what a contractor takes a day.
That is not saying the Fed Inv (FI) does a more thorough job, they don’t. It’s a matter of incentive. The human psyche gets excited to know there’s a bigger incentive when things get done quicker. The CI gets the same info/details and asks the same questions as the FI does, it’s just that the FI takes a 2 hour lunch or takes their time driving around etc, and no they are not punished for it, they’re told, good job getting those 2 neighbors and a law check done today.
Here’s a sample of my day:4am up, 5 am first SI with a sup and coworker done by 730am. 830am next SI with sup and coworker done. 10am-5pm running around all day with no lunch and get another 5-10 leads done. 6pm I’m at computer typing till 10pm.
Would a fed do that? Hm…
Certain vendors are now requiring 5 day ACD’s, due to they think that’ll get them more work. It will in the beginning, but CI’s are simply gona get burnt out and that’s not even talking about the actual challenges with that ACD. IE: Applicants work schedule has them in training or they are on days off etc … well that takes out 2-3 days of not being able to meet. Now what? You have 2 days to interview and submit report? That’s on top of the re works, pending work and all the other admin to get done all at the same time.
All appearances are that DCSA will greatly reduce or eliminate all contract companies. With a case load of 200,000 by end of this fiscal year, and 2,000 FI’s, yeah, it’s not looking good.
Let’s all keep each other informed. We may very well be able to weather this storm if we all have up to date info and be able to fire and adjust and/ or find other opportunities through all this.
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It was just a reference because it’s easy to relate. The point being with everyone however is CE will eventually allow some less than honest people to slip through…
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If anyone, fed or contractor, has to pull 17 hour days to meet expectations, then they are doing something very wrong.
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Exactly. That is the hallmark of someone who has no idea what they are doing.
Then again there are those full timers who work 15-17 hour days and only claim 8 because of pressure to complete work. If you’re doing this please stop because that’s what drives contract companies to have unrealistic expectations from everyone else working an honest 8 hours. The company knows you’re working off the clock and will turn a blind eye until you slip up and say the wrong thing to someone or have computer entries that don’t match the hours you’re claiming. Then you’ll be terminated by your employer for working off the clock because they don’t want a lawsuit for not paying you for hours worked. There have been many of these type lawsuits including the one right now against Keypoint and it costs companies millions (not that I care) but they’re serious about it.
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And it is against the law because you are a Federal contractor. Working off the clock is an easy fire for the contractors.
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Having been a contractor, and now a fed, the paintbrush that feds have no incentive to close cases is very prejudice. I could say that contractors don’t care about security or discovering issues because they only get paid for cases closed with coverage - not essence. I won’t because that is wrong also.
The feds have pressures and timeliness, quality, and production measures also.
When I became a fed, it was as if I stepped back to the pre DSS taking over OPM days. I quickly discovered that the contracting companies blamed OPM/NBIB for company policies - that have no root in OPM/NBIB policies. Full disclosure - went I moved from USIS to KGS - I quickly discovered KGS was seriously over working their cases.
The contractor model is not working out very well because the contractors have too much overhead requiring too much churning of cases to be profitable. When I first started with USIS there were only four people between me and the CEO Phil Harper. Then the business people arrived and the overhead grew… and grew…
The churn and burn mentality along with trying to impress a customer that is frustrated with the over written/overworked cases from the contract companies is killing the contractor force. Full Disclaimer This is observation over 17 years – I will never have the data from the contractor companies to prove my observations.
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Holy crap, you start conducting interviews at 5am? I’m willing to bet someone would laugh at me if I even suggested such a time. I do most of my interviews between 8am and noon that way I can usually be back home by 1pm to type/schedule more stuff and be easily be done before 5pm
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I would never do an interview at 5am - that’s a bit of an imposition on anyone. 5am is coffee time.
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I wasn’t really passing judgement. If it works for that person then hey, it’s whatever. But if that’s a typical day and they’re still typing until 10pm then that is pretty extreme. As for starting an interview at 5am, I have a hard time buying that people would want to meet that early on a consistent basis lol.
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Yes. Lol. But the customer/agency requires it. We can only meet during their work hours on their work days. Can not call or meet on days off or before/after work hours. A lot of the subjects work afternoons or nights.
It’s required by the agency. Can not meet on days off. Can not call on days off. And required to meet only during work hours. I don’t do legacy OPM now DCSA work. Whole different set of rules.
That’s by my choice. I’m the type who I’ve driven 11 hours one way and start interviews as soon as I arrive. Not even tired. And no coffee, maybe 1 Xyience drink. Don’t know how, but my internal drive been like that for almost 40 years. While in Afghanistan I would wrk 8 hours, fly 2 hours to Jbad and put in another few hours Work. No problem for me.
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I know all four Feds in my area. As a FTE for three different contractors, I was interviewed by 3 of the 4 as an employment source, interviewed for my ESIs by two of them, conducted their ESIs for 3 and interviewed all four for their co-workers empl sources. I can say that 3 of the 4 were professional and knowledgable. However, one conducted my initial ESI at my dining room table, another only asked some of the required questions and the other had to use a cheat sheet to ask me the source questions. When I conducted their ESIs, each asked me why I was asking some of the questions because they aren’t required to. During casual conversations, we discussed salary and workload. IMO, they worked 60-70% of the FTE workload with ACDs a week longer and their salary was 30-40% higher. Their review process is nowhere as onerous as the contractors and their stress level in minimal compared to the FTE. My last salary was 60k (counting H&W). If I started as a Fed instead of a FTE in 2009, I would be a GS12 making 101k with a pension. That’s the bottom line - Higher pay for less work.
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I don’t do OPM/DCSA. And, I’m credentialed with several companies on different contracts. I’m truly an “Independent” contractor. I can accept or decline case work. I schedule my own time. I’m not an employee. I know exactly what I’m doing. Been doing this for over 30 years.
In any event, hoping all goes well for everyone.
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