OPM's security clearance reformer retires

Kathy Dillaman, the Office of Personnel Management official in charge of improving the security clearance process, retired Monday after 35 years of government service, Federal Times reported.  However, she will serve as a senior policy advisor to OPM Director John Berry for the next year or two on issues such as security clearance reform and implementing a new financial management system, according to an e-mail she wrote announcing her departure.

Dillaman, OPM’s associate director of Federal Investigative Services, will be replaced by Merton Miller, her deputy associate director for external affairs.

Last December, she told lawmakers that OPM’s advanced use of IT, including modernizing its suite of automated tools, had helped reduce the time it takes to complete federal personnel security clearances.

In fiscal 2010, the OPM completed more than 620,000 initial security clearance investigations, and 90 percent of those clearances were completed in an average of 39 days, compared with 115 days in fiscal 2007, Dillaman said.