Top Issues in 2016 for Security Clearance Denials

Originally published at: https://clearancejobsblog.com/top-issues-in-2016-for-security-clearance-denials/

Through the end of November this year the Defense Office of Hearing and Appeals (DOHA) Board held 1,142 hearings for appeals on adverse security clearance determinations, eligibility for placement into public trust position or a Common Access Card denial. For comparison, I included last year’s numbers (through November 2015) in order to see trends in…

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Good info, thanks for posting.

I noticed that, as a percentage of total cases, financial considerations jumped from 44% to almost 58%! Many of the other areas declined, percentage-wise, including Alcohol, Drugs, and Criminal Conduct… better pre-screening perhaps?. I see that Handling Protected Information also went up a bit but not a large number of cases.

Would also like to see a similar breakdown for how long cases took but we won’t see that :slight_smile:

I would like to see stats for ALL of DoD, not just Industry cases. Maybe even all of the U.S. Government agencies to see if these trends are consistent with DOHA reporting.

I know that the DOHA site only provides details on industry cases. Nothing about government employees or military. Nothing for the DoD intel agencies, or anything for other non-DoD entities (State, DHS, FBI, etc etc etc).

Still I think we can assume that people are pretty much the same and these same trends apply to other populations as well. What might be different is the possibility of appealing… I think those chances are much, much lower for direct hire decisions.

I am not sure I understand your statement about the chances of appealing being low for direct hire decisions. Are you referring to appeal options for first-time direct-hire applicants, or already existing direct hires that may face revocations? I imagine for direct hires, they are just as appeal-able as well. Why would they not?

You do have similar appeal rights if you get turned down for a direct-hire federal job; I’m just saying that the chances of being successful are much lower as compared with those industrial clearance cases.

Yes. If you are referring to outsiders applying for clearances as a direct hire, I believe you are right. Though, it is hard to tell when there is limited to no data on case decisions as is publicly available through the DOHA industry clearance decisions.