J.A., DoD Employee, Proposed Removal Due to Possible Security Risk Because of Financial Debt
Mar 04, 2013OUTCOME: Success - Withdrawal of Proposal to Remove from Employment
The Office of Personnel Management proposed to remove J.A. from his federal employment because it felt that he was a security risk because of his large, mostly student loan debt. OPM accused J.A. o ... f "criminal or dishonest conduct" because he intentionally did not pay down his debts and also accused him of falsifying his employment application because he did not state the correct amount of his debt. However, after further investigation into his case and reviewing J.A.'s credit report, we discovered some major issues with the credit report. First, it was outdated. J.A. had already begun paying down various debts. Second, a lot of the student loan debt was inaccurate. Many were duplicated and made his debt larger than it seemed. Third, J.A. shares the same name as his father, so some of his father's debt were wrong attributed to him. Once these errors were discovered, J.A. and I worked together in making a response to OPM that proves that the credit report was wrong and even included letters from J.A.'s co-workers, testifying to his good character and how much of an asset he is to the team. OPM reviewed our response and made the decision to withdraw its proposal to remove J.A. and allow him to continue to work.
