Many businesses look at the United States defense industrial complex and see a closed community set up inside a seemingly impenetrable wall of bureaucratic red tape, regulations and obstacles. The view from the outside makes it look as though a firm must be invited into “the club” before they are eligible to play the course. In some cases that is true, especially in highly technical areas dealing with cutting edge technology. On the other side of the spectrum, the Department of Defense (DOD) buys an amazing amount of routine items such as paper, pencils and other day to day items that are purchased on the open market with credit cards or other rapid procurement methods such as a GSA Schedule. Somewhere in between there are DOD full and open competition contracts. These are cases where DOD puts out their requirements for procurements to the general public via a variety of different avenues such as Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOpps), a single government point-of-entry for federal government procurement opportunities over $25,000. A vast majority of these requests for proposal (RFP) fall in areas not requiring a security clearance to submit a bid on the contract. Frequently unseen, are the contracts that require a DOD Facility Clearance and personnel cleared to the level of the contract. In order to get qualified for these clearances, a company must first obtain sponsorship from a currently cleared contractor or a federal agency. Many of these RFPs come from DOD, the Intelligence Community, Dept. of Energy, Dept. of Justice and Dept. of State. By the very nature of these organizations’ mission, they frequently require protection of their information by means of classification. In order for companies to respond to RFPs for these classified contract, they must have a Facility Clearance (FCL). So, what is an FCL?

The federal government requires it’s classified contractors to operate under the National Industrial Security Program (NISP) established by Executive Order 12829, signed by President H. W. Bush on 6 Jan 1993. This program defines how companies will be evaluated and sets up an administrative process where companies are reviewed to determine if they are eligible to compete for classified US Government contracts. While there are other systems within the US Government, the vast majority of Executive Branch departments (22 user agencies) fall under the NISP Operating Manual (NISPOM). The NISPOM establishes the criteria used to evaluate companies to ensure they meet the standards for access to classified materials. The program is administered by the Defense Security Service (DSS) with Under Secretary of Defense and Congressional oversight. The process focuses on determining a company’s suitability to handle classified contracts, their financial stability and viability, their reputation in conventional business dealings and whether there is foreign ownership, control or influence in the company and if so, to what degree. Once the FCL is issued to the company, they are qualified to present responses to classified RFPs.

AUTHOR: Joe Dickey is the President and co-founder of Government Initiatives, Incorporated. He is a retired Special Agent and Manager with the National Security Agency (NSA) with 37 years of military, federal and civilian security experience in DOD and the Intelligence Community.  Joe is a subject matter expert in Antiterrorism, Physical and Industrial security, is a former adjunct faculty member of the National Cryptographic School and touring speaker in a number of venues. His background is in criminal, counterintelligence, industrial security,  antiterrorism and polygraph. He is a commercial pilot, flight, firearms and tactics instructor with domestic and overseas experience in executive protection. He teaches a variety of security and first responder related courses.

Contact:  Joe Dickey
                Government Initiatives, Incorporated
                (410) 758-8403 
                joe.dickey@starband.net