Can I sue the government because they did not adjudicate my clearance in a timely fashion and I lost my job as a result? Allow me to explain. I worked for a civilian company and completed my SF86 which was submitted in Jan 2019, interview for FS Poly was conducted Aug 2019 with 2nd interview Sep 2019. Numerous inquiries were made between the investigating Agencies Chief of Security and the group adjudicating the clearance from Jan 2021 through Oct 2021. After Oct 2021 higher Gov’t officials became involved indicating I was a key contract employee and would be losing my job if my clearance wasn’t adjudicated by the end of Dec 2021 which is when our contract was due to end. Our company won the follow on contract. In December I was offered a position on the follow on contract for a substantial salary which I accepted. Near the end of December we were all given notice that we would be terminated from the current contract that we were on. Shortly there afterwards the offer I was given to join the team on the new contract was with drawn because I did not possess a clearance with a FS Poly, and even though the existing Gov’t COTR allowed for a temporary waiver for the Poly on the original contract, the Gov’t COTR for the new contract would not allow it even though the clearance was probably months or maybe even weeks away from being adjudicated. We were given the opportunity to apply for other positions within the company which I did, but most of the jobs required FS Poly and I was not eligible to apply for those jobs. I applied for other lower level jobs but was not hired into any of those jobs. Consequently I ended up unemployed and eventually was offered a job for a future date at a substantial reduction in pay, and benefits. Can I sue for the lost wages and benefits as a result of the clearance not being adjudicated before my contract ended?
Can you sue? You can certainly find a lawyer who will take a lot of your money and waste a lot of your time but I doubt anything will come of it.
There’s always such an information barrier in these cases - govt and adjudicators will always claim that your case was being processed in the most timely manner given the circumstances of your case, and you can’t prove or disprove that from the outside. I’m sorry this happened to you, but a lawsuit is probably gonna go nowhere
So if I read you right, you don’t think I have a legitimate case. Is that what you are telling me?
I don’t think you can sue for something that you never had. Did your clearance ever get adjudicated?
It has not been adjudicated. It has been 18 1/2 months since my 2nd poly interview. But as a result I have been laid off from my company because the contract I was supposed to transition to required a FS Poly. I had an offer letter which I accepted. I would consider that a binding agreement. It was retracted a week before the contract ended because I couldn’t cross over.
I don’t think you have a contract with the government, your company does. You have a contract with your company or they hired you for a position with the stipulation you get an FSP. I don’t think you have any recourse with the government at all. Not sure how they prevented you from being employed, this seems like an issue with your company.
Agreed. The company laid you off, not the government. Every company that deals with clearances realizes there is no fixed guaranteed deadline on how long it takes to adjuticate someone.