The answer to the question posed in the above title, is so obvious that it is almost automatic  To boy something or when paying for some wanted services, having to only pay 1/200 (or 0.5%) instead of the whole usual price (or 100%) for the costs or charges, only a very stupid person would not take advantage of the bargain, provided that no con or fraud is involved.  Actually, this 'bargain' is available to many of the private sector contractors who deal with the U.S. Federal Government.  Many of these contractors are involved with projects that are associated or connected with our Country's national defense and security.  Such projects require (by 
Governmental regulations) that many of the involved contractors' employees must hold specified security clearance status.  Today, now that we are involved in our War on Terror, many many thousands of contractor employees now hold high-level security clearances, as required for the jobs that they are filling.

     A reading of the employment want ads in most of the largest city newspapers, especially in the Sunday edition, clearly shows that many of our country's contractors are recruiting highly trained specialists (such as engineers, mathematicians, computer scientists, intelligence analysts, etc.) and their ads indicate that only those already holding specified high-level clearances need apply.  Why do this mention this last matter?  Simply because if they can hire a qualified applicant who ALREADY holds the required clearances, they will same many thousands of dollars.  A decade and a half ago, it was suggested by a number of U.S. Government human resources managers that the costs associated with the entire investigation and subsequent adjudication process that is carried out prior to the granting of a Top Secret - Special Compartmented Information (TS-SCI) level clearance was about $25,000; for a 'regular' Top Secret level clearance, the figure of $10,000 was mentioned as being a bare minimum.  In the past decade and a half, costs have gone up greatly while the value of the dollar has declined.  However, let us still assume that these estimated costs for processing someone for these kinds of high-level security clearances are still realistic.  If a contractor, who is wanting to hire someone who must hold a TS-SCI clearance is able to hire a qualified person who DOES hold a TS-SCI clearance, that contractor just saved $25,000 as compared to hiring a qualified job applicant who still must be processed in what can be a rather lengthy evaluation period prior to the Governmental decision as to whether a clearance will be granted or not.

     If a contractor has to hire a qualified person and then must 'put in' an application with the Government to start the evaluation process that potentially can lead to the granting of the required security clearance, then not only must the contractor pay the Government for the costs incurred in the evaluation/adjudication process, but the contractor also must initially hire the individual and then place him, hopefully for one a short-term basis, in some work assignment that does not require the possession of any security clearance.  Normally, this period of employment before any clearance status has been granted is not cost effective as far as the contractor organization is concerned in that the newly hired employee will be involved with tasks usually below his/her professional qualifications.  With a job requiring a TS-SCI clearance, the contractor will not only have to pay the Government something like $25K to carry out an evaluation, but most likely will have to place the new employee, perhaps for a period of one year or more, in some work assignment that is frequently beneath the knowledge, skills and abilities of the recently hired employee.  When recruiting, this type of contractor organization is very pleased to hire a needed professional when that individual already holds the required clearance status and only as a last resort will hire a qualified professional when that individual does not possess the needed security clearance.

     Can a contractor organization do anything else other than only hire persons who already possess the needed security clearances or take a chance on a person, who does not hold the needed security clearance, and for whom the contractor must pay the Government for the costs associated with the evaluation and adjudication process that is involved in the potential granting of a security clearance?  The answer to this question is a very definite yes!  A psychological assessment instrument (i.e., a psychological 'test') exists that was especially designed and developed to accurately predict eventual success or failure to be granted the needed security clearance.   This testing can take place even before the security clearance process is initiated.  In fact, this testing can take place as early as in the initial recruitment phase.

    The test is titled as the Personnel Security Standards Psychological Questionnaire (PSSPQ) and developmental research on it was started in the late 1980s and is ongoing to the present time.  The PSSPQ was designed and built by Dr. LeRoy A. Stone, who in 1997 retired from U.S. Federal employment, at the time he had been the Chief Research Psychologist for the previous then years in one of the Country's largest intelligence agencies.  Prior to his Chief Research Psychologist assignment he was, in the same agency, a Senior Clinical Psychologist, for the previous almost 14 years; for most of these years he was Branch Chief of the agency's organization that conducted all of the psychological evaluations of employment applicants as well as many of the employees of contractor organizations who were being actively processed for highlevel security clearance status.  Almost always these psychological evaluations were accomplished as part of the evaluation process pertaining to the TS-SCI level of clearances.  [Complete information regarding Dr. Stone, his training and experience history and, in general, his overall professional qualifications, can be found at:
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/home.html.]

     The PSSPQ presently is a 72-item, multiple choice, assessment instrument that very accurately can predict whether an individual will or will not be successful were he/she to be processed for high-level (i.e., TS-SCI) security clearance status.  The prediction accuracy level, seen when this test is used, has been found to be about 95%.  Markedly high or low scores, on the scale used for prediction purposes, generally have been seen to be just about 100% accurate; the only inaccuracy has been found with scores obtained in the 'inner borderline' range.
Other than the PSSPQ, no other assessment instrument, has ever been developed and built for the prediction purpose that the PSSPQ was designed for.   The test has been carefully validated and cross-validated, following the best specified scientific/technical guidelines.  Its reliability also has been calculated using several models and has been found to, like its validity, to be very high.

     In the past couple of years, Dr. Stone has been marketing the PSSPQ; mainly using the Internet to announce its availability.  Dr. Stone was careful to select those financial charges for administration of the PSSPQ, that a number of practicing s industrial and organizational psychologists indicated would be fair and appropriate.  To date, no person who has purchased an administration of the PSSPQ complained of paying too much for the information that he/she received as a consequence of having been tested.  The current charge for 'taking' the PSSPQ, and for receiving a good deal of self-relevant information that is obtained from testing responses, is $125.00

     When $125.00 is divided by $25,000.00 (i.e., the estimated [back about a decade or more ago] cost for completing the evaluation/adjudication process leading to the decision to grant or not grant a TS-SCI security clearance), the result is 0.005, or 1/2 of one percent.  This computation is the basis for the title of the article you are presently reading.  When one considers that the cost estimation for the processing behind the adjudication process underlying the granting (or not) of a TS-SCI security clearance is well over a decade old, and most logically can be argued to be quite conservative, as well as the costs for 'carrying' a new employee, prior to he/she being granted (or not) a required security clearance, the presented 1/2 of one percent figure is very much a markedly low estimation.

     With this understanding, it is difficult to understand why the PSSPQ is not utilized much more frequently by the offices of human resources in those many corporations and other commercial organizations that contract with the U.S. Federal Government who requires that specified employees of these corporations/organizations hold high-level security clearances.  The cost for administration of a single PSSPQ and for being provided with interpreted results is only $125.00.  It is difficult to conceive of any valuable and truly-worthwhile information, as that obtained from a PSSPQ testing, costing as little as this price.

     Any human resources management personnel wanting further information regarding the PSSPQ, they are invited to take a look at:
http://www.home.earthlink.net/`lastone2/psspq.html.
This above given Web address contains a number of additional links to other Web pages that further describe a number of aspects regarding the PSSPQ as well as containing a link to Dr. LeRoy A. Stone's (the developer of the PSSPQ) index/home page.  The address for Dr. Stone's Web Site is:  http://www.home.earthlink.net/~lastone2/home.html.

If any HR deparment heads or directors are possibly interested in further information regarding costs and prricings for use of the PSSPQ, they are encouraged to contact Dr. Stone; his Email address is:

Costs for use of the PSSPQ may be negotiated based upon the size of bulk purchase and usage.