For those of you working on the OPM contract for Keyoint Government Solutions…does anyone have any insight into what is going on with this latest OPM outage?? Management sent out an email telling people to use their vacation and PTO since the OPM VPN is permanently down. Sounds like KGS could have been hacked and the OPM VPN may be unavailable for awhile. When I spoke with my CACI colleagues, they indicated that their VPN is operational and they have experienced no issues.
I think KGS has issues with their security infrastructure because they have at least 1 to 2 VPN outages per week.
If they were in fact hacked, KGS may be having problems getting renewed on the contract in October.
If it wasn’t true it would be pretty comical. Unfortunately many of us rely upon this contract for our livelihoods. Nonetheless, I hope this is nothing serious.
I’m hearing rumblings that the 1099s may be going away and in the future we will be either FT or PT employees. This model could get really interesting if the DOD breaks away as well. Our future may be eerily similar to the food servers and retail clerks who hold multiple PT employments with multiple employers. I can already see my next reinvestigation - Can you please explain how you are able to work at KGS, CACI, JK2S, 1Force, CSRA, ISN, and OMNI at the same time? And Why did you answer yes to question #21? PTSD from work related stress…
Any concrete evidence of contractors no longer being used?
Any articles and where have you heard this information?
This would be disastrous for me if KGS no longer allowed us to contract because I no longer could sustain this ind. contracting business without steady OPM work. Oh well…perhaps it would force me to do something else for a living.
It appears that this bill is going to pass and signs point to DOD taking over the OPM work by October 2017. That means contractors may no longer be used in the future…Of course it may also be difficult to get a federal job with DOD even if they are mass hiring because the federal govt. most always hire vets. I’m not going to hold my breath that I or really any of us would get hired by DOD unless we are vets because this is the customary way that the federal government hires its federal workforce. It’s crazy and unfair to non vets because I have applied for OPM jobs with over 10 years of experience working BI’s and they’ll hire a vet or a person with former federal service every time over a qualified Investigator. I respect and love vets but lets hire the qualified candidate.
I’m going to start looking hard to get out of this industry because by Oct. 2017, I believe KGS and CACI are going to be a thing of the past unless DOD picks them up which if their past history is any indication they are going to federalize this BI function. For contractors and F/T employees like myself who has worked for USIS and KGS over the years, we always seem to be the odd man out!! This industry has become way too volatile to stay in this and to think I would ever have a long term future in this industry is beyond wishful thinking…it’s a damn near impossibility.
One positive note. During there Senate hearings last year on OPM, DOD was asked if they could do the job without contractors and they responded with a quick “no”. I don’t see how DOD could possibly set up a full investigative, training and review operation within a year without contracting with KGS and CACI even if they patched over OPM S/A. Most of DOD seems to be contractors. Just look at Iraq where the had as many contractors in country than they had soldiers. Would DOD also be responsible for the rest of OPM work? How many OPM S/A would be allowed to leave OPM?
Although the future of this business is bleak, removing OPM from the process is a good thing. DOD can hire non-vets if the position requires specific skills or experience but I still think they will be using contractors to some extent. However, they may be a new company headed by some retired general or admiral that gets the contract.