U.S. Office of Personnel Management - Ensuring the Federal Government has an effective civilian workforce

Billing Rates:  The attached schedule of initial billing and discontinued rates for OPM's reimbursable investigative services will be effective October 1, 2003.  Due to increased operating costs, we are increasing the price of our investigative products by four percent (4%).  If your agency has a specific Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for products outside those listed in the attached billing schedule, you will be notified of any pricing changes through a separate letter.

In addition to our background investigations, we offer numerous special investigative products that are described in Federal Investigations Notice 03-07, "OPM Special Agreement Price Schedule."  These products are used by agencies that want to obtain single, or a combination of, record checks for use in pre-screening candidates as well as for other agency purposes.  We encourage you to contact your Investigations Program Specialist at (202) 606-1042 to discuss how we may be able to meet your investigative needs with these products.

Timeliness Service Categorization:  Current workloads and priorities precipitated by the national security emergency of September 2001, subsequent activation of military units, and the start-up of the Department of Homeland Security have all presented us with extraordinary challenges.  The tremendous unpredicted workload increase has had an impact on our ability to commit to our traditional 35-75-120 day timeliness service request categories.  Until our capacity to meet the national demand within these timeframes returns, we will process requests in three categories:  PRIORITY, ACCELERATED, and STANDARD.  Following is a description of each category and the service you can expect with acceptable requests.

Optional Services Available:  OPM will continue to provide optional investigative services, such as Advanced NACs and Advanced FPs upon request, to meet agencies' employment screening and interim clearance needs at no additional cost.

We are committed to providing quality investigations in a timely, cost-effective manner and are working diligently toward restoring the timeliness that our customers expect.

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Inquiries:  OPM-CIS, Customer Services Group, 202-606-1042

Code:  736, Personnel Investigations

Distribution: Non-DoD SOIs/SONs

Notice Expires:   September 30, 2004

Continue to enter the appropriate 3-character code in Block A of the AGENCY USE ONLY area of the SF 85, SF 85P, and SF 86.  The first two characters are for the type of investigative product requested, followed by the one character service code.

The charts below reflect the service categories available by case type:

For additional information concerning these services or additional investigative coverage, contact your OPM Investigations Program Specialist at (202) 606-1042.

Kathy L. Dillaman
Deputy Associate Director for Investigations

Attachments:

1. [1 - Investigations Billing Rates - FY 04 Effective October 1, 2003]
2. [2 - Investigations Billing Rates - FY 04 Effective October 1, 2003]
3. [3 - INVESTIGATIONS DISCONTINUED PRIOR TO COMPLETION BILLING RATES EFFECTIVE OCTOBER 1, 2003]