SF 85P, Adjudication of Comments Received from 30 Day FRN--Final Response

SF 85P--Adjudication of Comments Received From 30 Day FRN (Published 4-14-17)
Agency/Public	Name, Email, Telephone	Section	Original Text	Recommended Change	Comment/Rationale	Accept/Reject Comment/Rationale
PAC PMO		Instructions	The SF85P does not contain language under the “Investigative Process” section to supports continuous vetting (CV	Add language to notify applicants they may be subjected to CV, e.g  “after a suitability determination is made, you may also be subject to periodic reinvestigations or continuous vetting to ensure your continuing suitability for employment”.		Accept
PAC PMO		Instructions	“after a suitability determination is made, you may also be subject to periodic reinvestigations to ensure your continuing suitability for employment”	The statement “after a suitability determination is made, you may also be subject to periodic reinvestigations to ensure your continuing suitability for employment” under the “Authority to Request this Information” section is inconsistent with policy and fails to include those with “fitness” determinations.  It is the belief of the PAC PMO that employees must be notified of possible actions the hiring agency may impose.	Policy: 5 CFR 731 limits suitability actions to the first year of employment in the competitive service.  All other adverse personnel actions for competitive service employees must be taken under 5 CFR 752.  Modify the sentence to include those employees that fall under the “fitness” category. Be more specific on the actions that that agencies may take an employee does not meet standards for public trust periodic reinvestigation or continuous evaluation assessments. Example: “after a suitability or fitness determination is made, you may also be subject to periodic reinvestigations or continuous vetting to ensure your continuing eligibility for employment”.	Accept
				Additional Recommendation:  If accepted, it is recommended that OPM resubmit the SF 85P for a 30 day comment period due to the impact of the changes on employees covered by the SF 85P.		Comment is outside the purpose of this collection.
PAC PMO		Section 13 – Employment Activities	“Fired”, “Quit after being told you would be fired”, “Left by mutual agreement following charges or allegations of misconduct,”  or “Left by mutual agreement following notice of unsatisfactory performance.”	Recommend clarifying the reasons why the subject left employment.  Currently, the responses include “Fired”, “Quit after being told you would be fired”, “Left by mutual agreement following charges or allegations of misconduct,”  or “Left by mutual agreement following notice of unsatisfactory performance.”   These questions can (and are) interpreted by the subject and employers many different ways.  Also, the questions on the questionnaire as to why a S/ left employment need to be identical to those on the employment voucher and OF306, which they are not now.		Reject – The applicant is to complete the questionnaire based on his/her situation.  In regards to differences between the forms – the focus should be to make sure the appropriate questions are being presented to solicit information needed to support the background investigation.  The SF 85P, the OF 306, and inquiry forms (INV 40s) are used to collect information from the subject of a background investgation, from record providers, and/or from personal sources. There are slight differences in the wording found on all forms when soliciting inforamtion regarding employment history. The variances are minor and have not shown to impact the outcome of information provided by subject or other sources.
PAC PMO		Section 23 - Investigations and Clearance Record	“Have you EVER been debarred from government employment?”	Recommend moving the question, “Have you EVER been debarred from government employment?” from “Section 23 – Investigations and Clearance Record” to “Section 13 – Employment Activities.”		Reject. Even though the question is asking about debarred employment, most often the debarrment action is associated with information presented during the background investigation process. For that reason the collection more appropriately align with inforamtion regarding the investigations record.