State Dept. Cited for Not Updating Security Checks

Congressional investigators Monday faulted the State Department for failing to update security checks on thousands of long-term department employees who have access to top-secret information.

The department “has not reinvestigated about 75% of its 9,000 long-term employees in critical-sensitive positions, those who had been working with the department for five or more years,” the General Accounting Office said.

The number of people not reinvestigated after five years was 6,739, said the GAO, which is the investigative arm of Congress.

“About 44% of those eligible have not been reinvestigated in the past 10 years or longer, and dozens of employees have not been reinvestigated in 25 years or more,” the GAO said. The number not reinvestigated after 10 years was 3,908.

Possible Change in Risk Cited

Rep. Jack Brooks (D-Tex.), who requested the study, said: “Just because an individual was a good security risk five years ago doesn’t mean he still is.

“As espionage cases of the past few years have clearly demonstrated, U.S. government employees with security clearances and access to classified information are prime targets for recruitment by foreign intelligence operatives.”

State Department officials had no comment.

Department security investigators devote most of their energy to people seeking employment and were failing to meet their own goal of completing such reviews within 90 days.

“In essence, State has been giving a higher priority to investigating a large number of people who will never be hired rather than to investigating people already in sensitive jobs,” the GAO report said.