Undergoing an RSI. All the questions were related to stuff in my distant past (20+ years ago) that were disclosed in prior interactions with DCSA (10+ years ago). So honestly, not really sure why they’re even asking.
Anyway, after a few rounds of interviews, now they want me to sign an affidavit agreeing to all the stuff I said in prior interviews. What’s up with that? Are signed affidavits common as part of an RSI?
It just seems weird. They’re going to make their decision based on what the investigator wrote down, so what’s the point of having me sign something? If they wrote down something wrong, they’ll believe the investigator over me anyway.
I don’t believe affidavits are common. Usually they are about providing proof of something, child support, financial progress, divorce progress, citzenship progress, etc. I would be very careful about signing affidavits about things you said 10 plus years ago about something that happenned 20 plus years ago. It seems like a bit of a “gotcha” for something a long time ago that any person would have a difficult time committing to.
Affidavits used to be every time any issue was discussed. The general practice was reduced to specific requests for an Agency (VA is very common) and they are returning with the newest investigations.
Years ago the investigator would print out a statement and have the subject sign it. Some investigators would intentionally make several typos and have the subject initial each one, just to prove that they read it and didn’t just sign it
If you’re a defense contractor, a DCSA Report of Investigation cannot be entered into evidence at a DOHA hearing over your objection. An affidavit signed by you can be entered into evidence at a DOHA hearing even if you object. DOHA/DCSA usually attaches the ESI/TESI portion of an investigative report to “Interrogatories” for this purpose. Other agencies may call it an affidavit.
When I conducted background investigations from 2002 to 2013, I recall having to have some SUBJ sign an affidavit. I remember having to write out the affidavit by hand, meet with the SUBJ, have them read it, and then have them sign and date it. It sucked.
On a side note I wonder if RSI cases might be become more popular as part of the CV process. Our CACI manager has advised us CACI won a RSI contract and right now a small number of investigators are being trained to work on the contract but he expects all CACI investigators to eventually be trained on conducting RSI cases.
Peraton is also conducting RSI investigations. A small number of investigators and contractors are being assigned the investigations right now, but eventually all on the DCSA contract will be assigned RSIs. There was no individual contract to win.
It doesn’t work at DCSA Personal Appearances. It works at DOHA hearings and at other agency hearings where they generally follow the Federal Rules of Evidence. To be completely accurate, an investigative report can be entered as evidence at a DOHA hearing over the objection of an applicant if the government presents it with an authenticating witness (the investigator). However, investigators have not appeared at DOHA hearings since 2005 when OPM took over DoD security clearance investigations. Even after the investigations returned to DoD (DCSA), investigators are still not called to testify at DOHA hearing. This is probably because there are so many contract investigators and there is no mechanism for compensating them for their time. Attachments (e.g. arrest reports, credit reports, rental records, etc.) to investigative reports are always admissible at DOHA hearings.
I didn’t say “investigative file.” The investigative file contains more than the investigators’ report. There’s the SF86, credit report, attachments to the investigators’ report, and sometimes documents from other federal agencies. It’s only the investigators’ report that can be excluded from evidence at a DOHA hearing if the applicant objects to it and there is no authenticating witness– see DOD Directive 5220.6. By the time the case get to a DOH Judge, there’s also the applicant’s response to the SOR and sometimes an applicant’s response to “Interrogatories” and/or the applicant’s response to a “File of Relevant Material.”
Finally had the sit-down with the DCSA agent. The entire thing seems weird to me…
Prior to the meeting, I asked for a copy of the document I’d be signing, that was denied. Then in the room, I again asked to keep a copy, again denied. When I started to read the document, the agent was super-insistent that I had to sign the document as-is, and that I couldn’t make any changes. Only after I pointed out a list of blatant typographic and factual errors which couldn’t logically added up, did they finally agree to speak to their supervisor. Supervisor signed off on me hand editing the doc, and initialing my edits.
On one hand, it’s nice that I was able to correct a bunch of random errors before the report was finalized. But I’m also frazzled a bit by how the agent made me feel like it was a “big deal” that I had edits; and that it somehow meant that I was changing my story…
Was your Investigator DCSA or a CACI/Peraton/other contractor? This is sus based on the training I had. It could be a difference in policy or a lazy FI that didn’t want to bother to correct their work.
DCSA civilian. Their email has a .civ[@]mail.mil suffix. They seemed very sure of themselves, but yeah, fully possible they didn’t get properly trained. They did mention affidavits used to be uncommon. but recently became more popular (at least for them).
bebe 1979: All the investigative interviews and record checks are chronicled in the investigative report, whether they are done by field investigators, letter inquiry, or computer linkage. If you’ve had a background investigation done by DoD or OPM, request a copy using form INV 100 and you’ll see what one looks like. BTW SSBIs were replaced by Tier 5 investigations about 10 years ago. From the other posts on this thread, it seems that DCSA investigators are once again taking affidavits/sworn statements in the field and attaching them to their investigative reports. This may have been influenced by the new Personal Appearance [PA] hearings that DCSA inaugurated in November 2024 and began holding in May 2025. These new PAs are only available to DoD civilians and military personnel. If DCSA does this when needed for all Tier 3 and Tier 5 investigations (including contractor applicants) it could obviate the need for Interrogatories.
