DCSA has a new roadmap for the IT system for deferred background investigation

The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) has outlined an 18-month plan to get the National Background Investigation Services (NBI) IT system back on track, but the DCSA’s new director called the delays “unacceptable.”

In testimony before Congress on Wednesday, DCSA Director David Cattler said the Defense Department initiated a 90-day recovery plan this spring for the NBIS program, which is tasked with providing new IT capabilities to support the background investigation mission. Cattler took over as DCSA director in March. He said eliminating NBIS delays is one of his top priorities.

“With the help of our partners at the Department and the Government Accountability Office, we have developed a recovery plan to address these issues, including the cost of NBIS, its delivery schedule and its overall performance,” Cattler said during Wednesday’s hearing before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee’s Subcommittee on Government Operations. “And the result of the recovery plan is an initial 18-month performance roadmap for NBIS development.”

“To be clear, NBIS development will extend beyond the next 18 months. But I am confident that this path will allow us to refocus the program,” he added.

NBIS is a key component of the White House-led “Trusted Workforce 2.0” personnel vetting reform initiative. However, NBIS is years behind schedule and more than $600 million over budget. The Department of Defense had planned to deliver all new NBIS capabilities by 2019. But so far, the program has only delivered a limited number of new features, including a new “e-application” portal for security clearance applicants.

Cattler said of the $1.35 billion spent on NBIS so far, about $800 million has gone to developing new software, while the rest has been used to maintain existing background investigation systems.

“So we need to prioritize retiring the old software systems, taking into account how much they cost,” Cattler said. “And ideally we should retire the most expensive programs as quickly as possible, technology permitting.”

Last August, GAO reported problems with NBIS for the second time in three years, including funding shortfalls due to changing DCSA priorities and an unreliable schedule and cost estimate.

Alissa Czyz, director of defense capabilities at GAO, told the House subcommittee that the Defense Department did not always listen to the issues raised by GAO regarding NBIS. But she said GAO was “encouraged by the recent leadership changes” at DCSA.

“I cannot stress enough that the Department of Defense must implement key program management principles such as reliable schedule and cost estimation,” Czyz said. “Without these, programs will continue to suffer setbacks.”

Cattler also said he is committed to working with the GAO and other regulators. The Pentagon’s Acquisition and Sustainment Office is now the key decision-maker for NBIS. And Cattler has also asked the DCSA’s inspector general to review the NBIS program.

“I am committed to building a culture of accountability at DCSA that was missing from the program,” Cattler said. “Simple and straightforward: the delay in implementing NBIS is unacceptable to everyone.”

NBIS in the Cloud

According to Cattler, the DCSA is seeking approval of updated procurement, requirements and program documents for NBIS by the end of June.

In a written statement, he said the DCSA will prioritize five actions over the next 18 months: “modernizing and migrating NBIS applications, aligning acquisition and development efforts, aligning our NBIS workforce, aligning program costs and service pricing, and strengthening cybersecurity protections.”

Once the new program plan is approved, Cattler will direct DCSA to migrate select systems to cloud services provided through the Department of Defense’s Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) contract.

“This will provide NBIS with a stable, modern platform, security and scalability, and may allow application developers and investigative service providers to customize the platform to meet their specific needs,” Cattler said in a written statement. “Over time, this move will enable shared services.”

DCSA is also focused on restructuring the NBIS team and retraining the program’s staff. The agency recently hired both a new Program Director and a new NBIS Program Manager.

“We’ve gotten a lot of advice on who else we should hire and bring with us,” Cattler said. “For example, user experience experts (and) people who can help us a little bit more with data architecture. We’ve sent our people to agile training. Over 140 of them have received updated training and agile methodologies for software development. And we’ve also sent some of the program management people to Defense Acquisition University to get them upskilled in program management-related skills.”

DCSA is also working on a new cost estimate for the NBIS program. Cattler said the agency will also receive a separate, independent cost estimate for the updated program.

Czyz praised DCSA’s new efforts, but said the agency needs to be more rigorous in its future planning.

“We look forward to seeing the new roadmap and plans,” she said. “But I have to say that we’ve reviewed several NBIS roadmaps over the years. And none of them had reliable schedules. In fact, we did a review in 2021. It was unreliable. In our 2023 report, when we looked again at the new roadmap and schedule, they were actually worse than the 2021 (plan). So it’s great that new plans are being put in place. But it’s important that you follow the best practices for integrated master plans to get the plan right, otherwise we’re going to be doing this over and over again.”

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