Office of Operations, Security, and Preparedness
Office of Identity, Credential and Access Management
The Office of Identity, Credential and Access Management (OICAM) contributes to a safe and secure environment for the Department of Veterans Affairs through ensuring trust in our VA workforce — appointees, employees, contractors, and affiliates. OICAM ensures alignment, accountability, and transparency of VA’s personnel security, suitability, and HSPD-12 programs and provides central coordination and oversight of the Department’s personnel security, suitability, identity and credential management infrastructure.
This is accomplished through the following: the Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12)/Credential Management (CM) Program Management Office (PMO), the Access and Identity Management (AIM) PMO, the Personnel Security and Suitability (PSS) PMO, and the Security Investigations Center (SIC).
HSPD-12 is the government-wide Policy for a Common Identification Standard for Federal Employees and Contractors, issued in 2011, to ensure the use of the Personal Identity Verification (PIV) credential is required as the common means of authentication for access to VA’s facilities, networks and information systems (logical and physical access controls). HSPD-12 and its common identification standard require personal identity verification (PIV), background investigations, and suitability determinations for all affected personnel. The HSPD-12 Program Office provides Departmental policy and guidance, management, communications, training, deficiency requirements, and oversight for identity and access implementation programs
The AIM PMO supports the defining of requirements to establish consistent VA-wide solutions for identifying VA users for the purpose of managing access to information technology systems, data, and resources while ensuring an individual’s privacy.
The PSS PMO establishes and enforces VA compliance with personnel security and suitability policies and regulations. PSS provides broad Department-wide policy direction, standard setting, coordination, and performance assessment for organizational components within VA and carries out VA’s responsibilities to maintain a suitability program; including policy direction, standard setting, coordination, and performance assessment for organizational components for making suitability and fitness determinations within VA.
The SIC processes and adjudicates background investigations for all moderate risk, high risk public trust, and national security positions for federal employees and contractors. The SIC provides resources and facilitates requests for the VA Human Resource offices, Contracting Officers, and Contract Officers Technical representatives that initiate background investigations.
