The Office of Personnel Management awarded four contracts to help stand up its new background investigation unit on Sept. 12.
The indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contracts ensure a guaranteed minimum of $1 million per contract and were awarded to CACI Premier Technology, Inc.; CSRA LLC; KeyPoint Government Solutions, Inc.; and Securitas Critical Infrastructure Services, LLC.
The contracts will help support the Federal Investigative Services—which currently processes the government's background investigations—and its successor, the new National Background Investigations Bureau.
The NBIB was announced in January as a new office that would absorb the FIS, following the 2015 OPM hack that exposed the personal information of more than 21 million people, including federal employees and family members. The new bureau would handle all federal background checks, be managed by OPM, but have its cybersecurity overseen by the Department of Defense.
A statement from OPM said the contracts were awarded based on the four bids it received to help stand up the NBIB, which is scheduled for early October 2016.
"I look forward to continuing our relationship with CACI and KeyPoint, and to partnering with CSRA and Securitas Critical Infrastructure Services," said Acting OPM Director Beth Cobert, in a statement.
"These companies will work in coordination with OPM federal investigators in providing this critical function of conducting hundreds of thousands of background investigations for federal agencies annually."
The new contracts have a performance period of five years. Any amount over the guaranteed $1 million will be based on the workload each contractor is assigned and completes during the performance period, OPM officials said.
"This award also increases the industry base for performing investigative fieldwork and will allow OPM to work with the contractors over time to increase capacity and enhance the service delivered to our agency customers."
CACI and KeyPoint both previously held the bulk of the background investigations for the federal government prior to the hack.
A recent report by the House Oversight Committee detailed how one of two hackers used a KeyPoint credential to access OPM background investigation files, though former OPM Director Katherine Archuleta said in June 2015 that there was no evidence to suggest KeyPoint was directly responsible.
OPM officials said that CSRA LLC and Securitas Critical Infrastructure Services, LLC., could begin their contract work as soon as Dec. 1.
