Chapter 13 disclosure

It is time for me to submit my eQIP for my PR. Since my last Investigation, I filed a Chapter 13. I plan on fully disclosing it on the SF86. My question is , will the FSO review my EQIP and not submit to OPM because I disclosed the Chapter 13? And just pull me from the contract and let me go? Someone told me they could fire me for not telling them prior to submitting on SF86 for PR. I thought I only had to disclose once PR came up again. My wife lost her job and is now working; we are up to date on everything since filing. Thanks in advance for your feedback.

Don’t know . . . Probably not. But, the investigation will result in you being asked why you didn’t report the Chap13 when you filed it. Self-reporting doesn’t mean waiting until the next SF86. You are responsible for reported incidents when they occur.

It depends on your company’s policy and the question. If the Chapter 13 is within the scope of the question on SF-86, you need to answer it regardless otherwise it would be suspicious. Telling a background investigator the reason for omission that you shared with us is not good enough. if anything, it calls into question of your integrity and honesty.

I guess this is the sort of thing they hope to discover with the new “Continuous Evaluation” approach. I assume a bankruptcy would clobber your credit score so it would show up when they ran a credit check.

Although ignorance of the law (and self-reporting requirements) is no excuse, it might go over better than saying, “Yes, I know I should have reported this, but here is why I intentionally and knowingly decided not to.”