Revised DoD Clearance Guidelines May Provide Some Relief

Contract Management, in its October 2006 edition, summarized key elements of revised Department of Defense (DoD) security clearance adjudication guidelines. The new guidelines appear to provide some relief for clearance applicants concerned that the “whole person” approach is not employed in adjudication decisions.

Among the Guidelines’ recommendations, in evaluating the relevance of an individual’s conduct, the adjudicator should consider:

• the nature, extent, and seriousness of the conduct;
• the frequency and recency of the conduct;
• the individual’s age and maturity at the time of the conduct;
• the likelihood of continuation or recurrence

The decision whether to grant clearance must be an “overall common sense judgment” based on the various federal Adjudicative Guidelines (available on ClearedCommunity.com links).

The revised DoD Guidelines also say that, in evaluating the security clearance, the adjudicator should also consider any mitigating factors such as voluntarily reporting the information or truthfulness in responding to questions.

The Federal Register listing may be found here.

Filed Under: Reform, Adjudication