HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah — Investigators responsible for performing background checks on federal personnel will soon call Hill AFB home – at least temporarily.
The National Background Investigations Bureau, or NBIB, will establish a “surge” office on the installation as part of a federal government initiative to shrink the number of backlogged personnel security investigations across the Air Force.
NBIB is an agency within the Office of Personnel Management responsible for conducting the background checks.
Dave Koontz, Chief of Information Protection at Hill AFB, said an 18-person NBIB team will stand up the operation March 5-30. They will be followed by an additional team in April and likely a third team in May.
Hill AFB currently has more than 1,200 open investigations.
The backlog, Koontz said, is due in part to an increase in jobs at Hill that require background investigations. Hill AFB employs more than 22,000 military and civilian workers.
Office space in building 349 and support items for investigators as well as administrative personnel to help schedule interviews will be provided by Hill AFB, Koontz said.
Interviewees will be contacted by NBIB agents and asked to bring their common access card, passport and other items to the interview to expedite the background investigation process.
Other items to bring include financial information related to financial delinquencies or issues, a cell phone or address book with contact information for contact sources and updated copies of their Standard Form 86 certifications.
NBIB officials said one advantage of setting upsurge operations like this is investigators do not have to travel long distances to conduct interviews. The intent is to close out as many field interviews as possible during their time at Hill.
Hill isn’t the first base to host NBIB teams. NBIB hubs were set up last year at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, in October and again at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas, in December.
Similar operations are planned at other installations with large numbers of backlogged personnel security investigations.