Heard today that Perspecta may be closing the OPM/NBIB Program soon? Is there any truth to this? Perhaps the Perspecta “powers that be” that peruse the website can confirm or deny if these rumors are true…
I hate to throw out rumors but I called the GDIT rumor a few weeks ago when they were not being renewed on the OPM/NBIB contract which nobody gave me credit for…I only received some snide remarks.
This is big news for the industry if this is true. And I am wondering if this whole thing is going to be federalized anyways which means no middle man anymore…no Perspecta, CACI, or SCIS. DCSA could very well go back to the old business model of only having federal agents doing the B.I’s. This was DOD’s business model in the past (pre-2005) when they turned over the federal background investigations to OPM. I think that’s a couple or more years down the road but that’s my feeling and insight into what I believe will happen.
Considering Perspecta has (had?) the lion’s share of the work, that would be earth shattering. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised, the Earth seems to have tilted on its axis lately, LOL.
I don’t see this being credible. They are actively hiring and have spent years building up the NBIB side of the business and resources. They are one of the leaders in this industry.
The old DIS/DSS used very few contract investigators but OPM had been using them for a long time. Also the various IC agencies who run their own BI’s use a lot of contractors. It takes an incredibly long time for federal agencies to get approval to hire new staff so even if that is their plan, it won’t happen quickly.
The contractors have learned the ins and outs of doing business with OPM, now they have to deal with a new crew. Maybe not new people but new DoD regulations, and who knows, maybe all those contracts folks (the acquisition/procurement/contracts staff) from OPM are thinking this is a great time to rework how they do things.
@sbusquirrel, see I was always under the impression that when it came to IC agencies, like NSA for example; they did their own investigations… from beginning to end.
Lately, I’m hearing the same as what’ve you just mentioned.
Yes that is what I understand… but they hire contractors directly, mostly retired investigators I think. Not sure which contract companies they use but I dont think its the same ones as OPM/DSCA. I heard of one a long time ago I think it was called MSM… probably been bought and sold a dozen times since then.
The other agencies normally use the same NBIB contractors – with some exception. There are also some federal background investigators (or were) for some of those agencies.
I had CBP/ICE/ and OPM credentials when I was a contractor – back then I had to be careful which creds I pulled out. This is the only fun part of being a BI contractor – working the different contracts.
The government spread the BI field too thin with too many contracts. This will lead to many BI’s calling it quits as work is scarce. If CE works well, finding and removing people who are in violation, which I am sure there is many based on social media comments alone, this will further reduce the need for BI’s.
I don’t see how they can cut BI pay anymore. It is already a border line being able to make it job. Now contractors could make serious money for crazy long hours, but the hourly employees were limited. I know the profits from the investigation were really skewed towards the company, so there might have been some room there to cut prices.
I wonder if these companies are dubious given all the uncertainty with the move to DoD and the continuous talk about continuous evaluation (which is all it seems to be so far, talk). The profit margins on this business are pretty slim to begin with, or so it seems given all the nickel-and-diming I hear about.
From what it seems CE has already begun replacing many T5Rs do I don’t know if you can call it all talk. And if T5Rs are suitable for CE, imagine what it means for the even fewer T3Rs out there
How do you know when CE has replaced a reinvestigation? Do you get a new date clearance granted? I mean, the final adjudicated clearance still has to have an effective date?
That I’m unsure. Just going off what people have said on here about the T5Rs in their area or organization. What I know is you still submit an sf86 when your organization requests it and then if it’s not dergatory they notfiy you that you’ve been enrolled in CE. I don’t even know if CE is a bandage for the time being or a permanent solution. But if I had to guess, I’d say it’s permanent because the government loves slashing costs.
Yes that is certainly true… but compare this with the reciprocity mess. Just because one clearance-granting authority says CE is acceptable, does that mean everyone will?
Time will tell! This could impact anyone who wants to switch jobs… or even just work on a different contract for a new customer. Good grief, it could even impact one’s ability to travel to another facility for a meeting!
That’s actually a really good question. I’ve heard an IC has started CE but who knows where this goes with other agencies accepting. The ones I’ve seen definitively are DoD. For now, it’s just one of those wait and see sadly.