Professor Anthony Glees Dr Julian Richards University of ... - PCG

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Of course, perception and reality are not always the same and perceptions canchange depending on the viewpoint of the subject. Differing perceptions of thevarious actors involved in the business of contracting are significant ones. Forthe contractor, the biggest single concern is the perception of a „Catch-22‟situation affecting them. This is that they have seen that without an existingsecurity clearance some find it impossible to get contracts in industry wheresecurity and national security issues exist but that without a contract theycannot acquire a security clearance. From the perception of the government (inthis case the Cabinet Office who draw up the UK‟s guidelines on the acquisitionof security clearances) the „Catch-22‟ situation does not (or should not) existbecause the regulations are clear that the possession of a security clearancesshould not be a precondition for any successful bid by a contractor for work in anindustry where security clearances may be required. As discussed, the CabinetOffice feels it has done much to underscore this fact but also to speed up theprocess by which clearances can be obtained, making this a matter of daysrather than weeks or months. This process is likely to be further speeded up bythe introduction of Cerberus, now on-line. A complicating factor, of course, isthat presented by the necessary presence of the recruiting agencies who maynot be following the government‟s guidelines, or who may use a misreading ofthe guidelines in order to cut back on the numbers of applications for a contractthat they may receive. (It was generally accepted by most that the likeliestreason for so doing was a practical one of filtering a very large number ofapplications for a contract down to a more manageable amount of paperwork.)The competitive pressure on the individual agent to find the candidate mostlikely to be chosen (that is, the candidate with a pre-existing clearance) is acommercial reality containing an inherent conflict of interest between contractorand agency.On review of PCG members‟ experiences, the most common complaint concernsthe „Catch-22‟ situation in which they perceive themselves to be enmeshed (withrecruitment agencies repeatedly claiming either that an existing clearance wasrequired by the industry client or that whether or not this was consistent withthe government‟s guidelines, the agency would insist on clearances and40
prepared, plainly, to exclude anyone who objected). Additionally, PCG membersask important questions about whether security clearances should apply to aparticular person, or a particular job; they are unclear why there are a numberof clearances from which to choose and why different vetting agencies may beinvolved in providing them. Some cannot understand the focus on their financialposition and the checks into it that are required, feeling this to bedisproportionately intrusive. Others believe that the recruitment agencies areusing vetting agencies, especially the DVA, either as an easy means of deflectingany criticism from themselves about how they have gone about the contractingprocess or to reduce the number of applications they are required to examine.Questions were asked about whether some form of „pre-clearance‟ might beemployed and about the costs of clearance and whose costs these should be.The phrase a „costly paper chase‟ was used to describe the process. There weresome fundamental queries about the length of time a security clearance wasvalid and the fact that a clearance accepted by one government departmentwould not be accepted by another department. Some believed that a clearanceshould be obtainable by a contractor without a sponsor (one request mentionedan „unsolicited clearance application‟), others were uncertain what happened to aclearance when the contractor moved from one post to another within the periodof an existing clearance or why a clearance was required for a specific job in2006 but not required for the same job in 2010. Finally there were calls for a„generic clearance‟ where clearances would be produced „in abstract‟.While the Cabinet Office‟s Security Policy Department invites complaints ofmaltreatment from contractors, the officer of the Director of Business Resilience(DBR) has also undertaken some investigation of the roots of the „Catch-22‟problem. While examples of adverts for contracts stipulating that a securityclearance is required are manifold, the question is often asked as to whether thisis misinterpreted. For example, a job advert that says „security clearance isrequired for this post‟ does not necessarily mean that you have to have one inplace before applying – it could equally mean that you will ultimately need one,but could apply for it after establishing if you were going to be awarded thecontract.41
Page 10: a level playing field. If present e
Page 13: equired to achieve this desirable g
Page 16 and 17: have exactly the expertise that gov
Page 18 and 19: We are satisfied, as we say, that i
Page 21 and 22: contract (government end-user, recr
Page 23 and 24: The main points are:• More than t
Page 25 and 26: containing an inherent conflict of
Page 27 and 28: In general, we recommend that• In
Page 29 and 30: • PCG acts as intermediary betwee
Page 31 and 32: government departments, and via the
Page 33: One of the most important points to
Page 36 and 37: articulation of government policy i
Page 38 and 39: conducting the first level of check
Page 42 and 43: On at least one of the major job-bo
Page 44 and 45: eadiness to raise the bar on profes
Page 46 and 47: Michael Shryane at the Cabinet Offi
Page 48 and 49: commercial worlds were increasingly
Page 52 and 53: with the Data Protection Act. The D
Page 54 and 55: The DVA would forward lists of comp
Page 56 and 57: Second, there is a question of reso
Page 58 and 59: addressing all of these coherently.
Page 60 and 61: crime in many parts of the world fi
Page 62 and 63: concerned with the potential indivi
Page 64 and 65: of risk. As for „transparency‟

Professor Anthony Glees Dr Julian Richards University of ... - PCG

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