Extensive fraud has been committed by investigators responsible for conducting background checks used in granting security clearances to national security employees, a government watchdog will tell lawmakers on Thursday.
Patrick McFarland, the inspector general for the Office of Personnel Management, will tell a joint hearing of Senate subcommittees on homeland security that his office doesn’t have the resources it needs to ensure the checks – which were required of the millions of Americans with clearances – are not falsified.
So-called “fabrication cases” occur when background investigators “report interviews that never occurred, record answers to questions that were never asked, and document records checks that were never conducted,” McFarland will say, according to prepared testimony.
In one case, a woman responsible for conducting credit checks was found to have fabricated 1,600 different reports. In an ironic twist, the background check used to hire her was also found to be false.
In all, 18 employees have been criminally convicted of falsifying background checks, McFarland will say in his testimony. . .