Hello,
I have/had a secret clearance since 2002 from the military. I left the USMC in 2014 and landed a contract position with AFSOC. I continued work with them until March 10, 2017 I was question by Police on a situation OCONUS. I was never arrested nor convicted of a crime. The commander on that base chose to send me off the base. My employer then had to terminate me because of the questioning. I asked multiple times if my clearance would be affected due to this. I was told no multiple time during my last meeting with them.
I was looking for work for 2 months. I landed another job that required a secret clearance. Offer letter came and then got rescinded do to having a redline in JPAS. I contacted my previous company, and was told the redline in JPAS is dated March 10, 2017. Then I was told to explain the situation to my new employer and they can sponsor me and request the redline to be closed out. Since I no longer had association with the previous employer. My new employer decided to take me on anyway. An owning relationship with my new employer was documented in JPAS on the day I was hired, 11 May 2017. On 20 Jun2017, my new employer received the JPAS Eligibility Change Notification from the Department of Defense Central Adjudicating Facility (DoD CAF) which indicated the Eligibility Change, Loss of Jurisdiction.
I then proceeded to contact my privies employer again to ask why is my clearance being affected. This is what I received:
Hi Chris -
I would like to apologize for any miscommunications that have occurred. In regards to the paperwork you were given, the letter does state "Your clearance is no longer active 2 years after the date of separation unless another organization services your clearance before thenā. Please note government does reserve the right to suspend and/or revoke clearance eligibility at any time due to receipt of adverse information and/or a pending investigation. We do not adjudicate clearances and is not involved in that process.
In accordance with government reporting requirements, we submitted a report via JPAS (the government security clearance database system) regarding the situation that led to Mr. Torresā employment termination. That report, by itself, did not have an impact on his clearance eligibility, but it did spur review of his eligibility to ensure it is still in the best interest of the US Government. When the government adjudicator reviewed the report, they also reviewed the current employment/access status, which is āterminated/separatedā. Due to budget shortfalls that are greatly impacting clearance-processing timelines, the government has made some procedural changes to save costs where possible. One of those changes includes not completing adverse information/report reviews, or clearance investigation/re-investigation adjudications, when there is no active relationship in JPAS between an individual and an employer; in those types of cases, the adjudicator enters a āLoss of Jurisdictionā note into JPAS which effectively freezes any existing eligibility pending a new employer coming along and needing that eligibility in support of a classified government contract. The only way to avoid this is for the gaining security office (of the new employer) to submit in JPAS whatās known as an RRU (Request for Research and Upgrade) requesting that the incident investigation be transferred under their CAGE/office and adjudicated for access in support of their contracts.
In this case, Mr. Torresā clearance was not revoked as he stated in his email. Revocation of a clearance is a determination that continued access to classified by an individual is not in the best interest of the US; this only occurs after the individual is contacted by the Defense Office of Hearings and Appeals (DOHA) letting him/her know of the intent to revoke, and providing a chance for the individual to provide mitigating information; upon revocation, the clearance eligibility would reflect āDetermination Eligibility Revoked.ā This does not seem to be the case for Mr. Torres. What we can tell is that a Loss of Jurisdiction was entered into JPAS by the DODCAF due to the lack of a timely RRU submittal by his gaining security office; an RRU submitted immediately upon employment would have validated the continued need for access and resulted in transfer of the incident investigation under their company.
Of note, Mr. Torresā clearance eligibility remained active following submittal (around 14 March) of the incident report by SNC; that report and the employment termination had no direct impact on his clearance. Based upon the available information in JPAS, the impact to his clearance eligibility (which occurred on 20 June) appears to have occurred due to lack of a timely RRU submittal prior to completion of the incident investigation/adjudication by DODCAF. Mr. Torresā clearance eligibility can still be reinstated following a favorable adjudication by DODCAF, which would first require an RRU from a current cleared employer.
Per the DODCAF website (http://www.dodcaf.whs.mil/):
Loss of Jurisdiction is placed on a subjectās eligibility once they have been Out-processed from JPAS, and have no owning/servicing relationship. In order to request adjudication the Security Manager or FSO must submit either an RRU or RFA (for Army) to request adjudication once they have created a new owning relationship for that subject in their JPAS account.
I then provided this to my new employer and received:
Chris,
Thanks for this information. I checked this with Corporate Security and got a slightly different take. The statement: āWhat we can tell is that a Loss of Jurisdiction was entered into JPAS by the DODCAF due to the lack of a timely RRU submittal by his gaining security office; an RRU submitted immediately upon employment would have validated the continued need for access and resulted in transfer of the incident investigation under their companyā does not appear to be accurate.
The quote from the CAF website states: Loss of Jurisdiction is placed on a subjectās eligibility once they have been Out-processed from JPAS, and have no owning/servicing relationship. In order to request adjudication the Security Manager or FSO must submit either an RRU or RFA (for Army) to request adjudication once they have created a new owning relationship for that subject in their JPAS account.
We established an owning relationship with you and documented it in JPAS on the day you were hired, 11 May. At that time, there was no need to submit a Request for Research and Upgrade (RRU), since you had not been out-processed from JPAS. On 20 Jun, We received the JPAS Eligibility Change Notification from the Department of Defense Central Adjudicating Facility (DoD CAF) which indicated the Eligibility Change, Loss of Jurisdiction. Leidos submitted the RRU on 21 Jun. There was no delay in either establishing the owning relationship or submitting the RRU.
I am now being Laid off and would like to try and figure out how to clear the redline being that my livelihood and my career field requires me to have a clearance.
Iām at a loss here and really do not know what to do. It seems like a finger pointing issue. The main thing is how do I get this fixed before my last day so I can keep my job. Thanks in advance for any help and insight that you may provide!