The way the federal government hands out security clearances to public servants to protect national security has been slammed in a national audit report, despite the tens of millions of dollars spent on IT and contractors.
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The report also said the centralisation of security vetting into one federal agency had failed to recover the promised $5.3 million in savings and had made "no noticeable improvement", with more than 10,000 people in the Defence Department agency's backlog.
Among other findings, the report said $37 million invested in IT did not deliver a "functional" system, and agency staff had access to public servants' records beyond their "need to know".
The Australian Government Security Vetting Agency (AGSVA) was set up in late 2010 within the department to hand out security clearances to public servants more efficiently, instead of each agency doing its own.
The auditors said expected savings had not materialised.
"AGSVA continues to fall well short of fully meeting its vetting responsibilities in a timely manner, and anticipated savings have been eroded," the report authors said.
The report said just 55 per cent of clearances were done within the benchmark time frame.
"AGSVA has been unable to meet agreed benchmark time frames for processing security clearances since 2010, and despite investments in people, systems and processes, there has been no noticeable improvement in the timeliness of clearance processing," the auditors said.
More than 13 000 public servants' security clearances were overdue for revalidation by the agency, where public servants' access to classified information received a check up, the report found.
"The significant backlog of revalidation work requires management attention at a time of heightened government concern about the threat posed by trusted insiders," the auditors said.
The auditors also suggested multimillion-dollar new purpose-built digital vetting systems would have to be discarded, despite costing $37 million since 2008, as they were not "functional" for future use.
"The ePack system remains a frustrating and difficult system for individual users to navigate, raising efficiency and productivity issues in the vetting process," the audit said.
The auditors found the IT systems relied, at times, on "inefficient hard copy documentation" and Microsoft Outlook.
The agency employed 272 public servants as of March 30 this year, and managed more than 300 contractors. Vetting contractors cost the agency more than $17 million in 2013-14.
"Overall, between 2011-12 and 2013-14, AGSVA's expenditure was some 21 per cent higher than originally estimated in the November 2009 policy proposal," the auditors said.
Despite managing about 349,000 security clearances, auditors found "no formalised policy and inconsistent practices, including instances where staff members could access clearance records beyond their need to know".
The Defence Department said it agreed with the audit and had started work on the issues raised.
