Some clearances based on faked screenings, review finds

Some clearance investigators are not actually doing all the work they claim to be, review reveals.

Court records show at least 170 confirmed falsifications of interviews or record checks supposedly done for national security clearances for federal employees and contractors and more than 1,000 others that couldn’t be verified, Jim McElhatton reports in The Washington Times.

Meanwhile, agencies and contractors are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars investigating the investigators, the story based on the newspaper's review of court records also said.

Some background investigators who help determine who gets top-secret security clearances have been submitting forms saying they conducted interviews or verified official documents when they didn't do the work, the article said.