Ed* is the owner of a small defense contracting business. Last year, he went through the (somewhat painful) process of getting his organization cleared. He did all the work for eFCL and obtained his token and JPAS account. He even figured out how to indoctrinate his five employees into JPAS so they can access their classified work.
Now, his company is about to win another classified contract award. When that happens, he will take on eight new employees located in a different state. When he sat through his initial briefing with his IS Rep, she told him about annual trainings, reporting requirements, self-inspections and preparing for government assessments. He also learned that his new hires will need CAC requests, periodic re-investigations and training requirements that are listed in the statement of work.
Ed, as owner of a small business, is responsible for business development, proposals, payroll, program management and is the FSO. He realizes that without help, he may compromise his security program. The company is not large enough yet to hire an additional person for FSO work, but no one on staff has the time.
Ed decided to out-source all of the administrative tasks of the FSO work to a company like FSO PRO or FSOlutions. He still held the title of FSO and had access to JPAS, but they assisted with badges, JPAS, training, DD254 review, inspection prep and kept the organization on-time and compliant.
Wondering if you, like Ed, would benefit from FSO Support? Here are a few signs to determine if you are ready.
1) You are the FSO, but are too task-heavy in other areas to do the work. Maybe you are the owner, the CEO, the HR Manager … and while FSO work is extremely important, you find yourself pulled in too many directions to give it the attention it needs.
2) You keep getting locked out of JPAS – or need to complete a function in JPAS but you are not available. JPAS is essential to FSO Work – initiating investigations, sending visit requests, running reports. However, it is useless and frustrating if you are locked out or stuck in a long meeting when a JPAS function is needed.
3) You are hiring new people to work on a classified contract and you need to quickly determine if they are cleared or not. No one knows the exact status of a candidate until they are vetted and verified. Do not take a job hunter’s word for it.
4) You need to use subcontractors on a classified contract and are not sure what to do. It is important to handle subcontractors properly – in JPAS, with ISFD and with the correct security guidance. Without knowing what you are doing, you can find yourself with a security vulnerability.
5) Your proposal team asked for a “security write –up” for their proposal submission and you are not sure what to write.
6) You know you have to do security training and a self-inspection annually, but are not sure how or what should be submitted.
7) You know you should be doing something regarding your cleared employees and foreign travel but you do not know what.
8) You have Consultants you would like to use on your cleared contract but you are not sure how to administer that. This is a similar situation to that of subcontractors. It is allowable, but has specific NISPOM requirements.
9) You need to update the clearance for your employees or send fingerprints to OPM but are not sure how.
10) One of your cleared employees received a DUI and you are not sure what to do next.
11) Your organization wants to upgrade for facility status (from Secret to Top Secret or adding classified storage) and you are not sure what comes next.
12) You were notified that your inspection (Security Vulnerability Assessment) is coming but you are too busy to prepare.
13) Your FSO just left and you have not hired or trained a new one yet.
If any or several of these signs apply to your organization, seek out an affordable and compliant solution. FSO PRO will tailor our services to your needs. For more details, contact us.
(*not his real name)