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US Media Agency Reports Years-long Problems With Vetting Employees

VOA News

   WASHINGTON - A report on security procedures for vetting workers at the
   U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees Voice of America and other
   U.S.-funded news networks, is exposing divisions between the agency's
   current and former leaders.

   The USAGM on Tuesday released a 96-page report by the U.S. Office of
   Personnel Management -- marked "not to be released to the public or
   other personnel who do not have a valid 'need-to-know' " -- following
   new CEO Michael Pack's call for the review late last month.

   The report's findings highlight chronic deficiencies about the vetting
   of employees going back almost a decade. Problems ranged from what the
   report describes as a lax approach to background checks and
   record-keeping to background investigations that were too aggressive
   and "beyond the scope of the Federal Investigative Standards."

   The report's harshest criticism, however, focused on the former.

   "The quality of USAGM's background investigations posed aserious risk
   to both the agency and the Federal Government as a whole," the report
   said. "USAGM employees have not been properly vetted, yet currently
   have access to government systems, facilities, and, in some cases,
   sensitive or classified information."

   The report called on USAGM to "immediately initiate new investigations
   for all individuals investigated by USAGM" since 2012, when the
   agency's authority under a vetting agreement with OPM officially
   expired. The report said this affected 1,527 past background
   investigations, of which only 314 had been scheduled for
   reinvestigation as of February.

   VOA reached out to both USAGM and OPM for clarity on how many current
   employees have been properly vetted, and to describe what, if any,
   damage may have been done to U.S. national security as a result.
   Neither agency responded for publication.

   Former USAGM CEO John Lansing, who led the agency for four years before
   resigning last September, pushed back against allegations that
   management had resisted changes intended to improve security.

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