Wednesday, DSS posted a newsfeed item that will have a significant impact on cleared Industry. From June 19th through July 4th, DSS and PSMO-I will be suspending access to the Knowledge Center (Help Desk) for Personnel Clearance (PCL) related inquiries.
This decision was made to provide PSMO-I as much bandwidth as possible to process the existing backlog of investigation requests. It currently takes, on average, between 90 to 120 days for an SF-86 to be accepted by PSMO-I once it has been submitted through JPAS. This extensive delay compounds the already extended timeline that was imposed in August 2016 for interim adjudications.
While the Help Desk suspension will undoubtedly create near term inconveniences, it is meant to enable PSMO-I to return the SF-86 acceptance process to a reasonable timeline.
Since the Help Desk will not be available for PCL matters during this upcoming period, it is worthwhile to familiarize yourself now with the alternative options that will available for your PCL questions while the suspension is in effect:
1. RRU will remain available for questions and PCL-related needs to be submitted to DSS, PSMO-I and DOD CAF for action.
2. The DSS website (www.dss.mil) provides a series of FAQs on the various Toolkits in addition to DSS Office specific pages.
3. DSS will have staff on hand at the NCMS Annual Conference being held in Anaheim, CA (June 20th to the 23rd) specifically to provide PCL question support.
4. And, as always, you have everyone here at Squadron Defense Group ready to assist you by phone, email and in person. Our team has extensive experience in PCL related matters, and we stand ready to provide as thorough and in depth a response as possible.
Please see the full message from www.dss.mil posted below:
May 17, 2017 Temporary suspension for Knowledge Center PCL inquiries
Personnel Security (PCL) inquiries (option #2) to include e-QIP authentication resets of the DSS Knowledge Center will be closed from Monday, June 19, 2017, through Tuesday, July 4, 2017. (more)
The extended closure enables the Personnel Security Management Office for Industry (PSMO-I) to focus on processing the inventory of investigation requests, with an anticipated substantial improvement to timelines for processing initial investigation requests and relative improvement to requests for periodic reinvestigation. At this time, in order to reduce processing timelines of initial investigation requests, the knowledge center services will be temporarily suspended. Normal operations for PCL and e-QIP inquiries will resume on Wednesday, July 5, 2017. DSS regularly assesses its execution strategy against available resources. As a reminder, answers to common PCL inquiries are available on the DSS website.
May 17, 2017 Personnel Security information on DSS website
Looking for that Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence (USD(I)) memorandum reminding DoD components that personnel security clearances (PCL) do not expire? Or the Common PCL Knowledge Center Inquiries web posting? We realize that it can be difficult to locate PCL information on the main DSS website due to the volume of updates and frequency in which items go into archive. (more)
For that reason, we recommend looking for PCL-specific items on the Personnel Security Management Office for Industry