In this fourth and final installment on “Creating Accurate and Complete NED Records,” DPSAC explores how best to validate an individual’s Personal, Work or Position Information when creating NED records and offers helpful tips for NED portal users.
NED administrators are urged to “Review, Correct, Validate” an individual's Personal and/or Position data in NED before completing a NED registration.
The September 26, 2018 DPSAC News reviewed the importance of validating the Citizenship and Legal Status fields in NED. It also offered suggestions on how to avoid discrepancies so that the background investigation and the PIV badging process can proceed in a timely manner.
This installment looks at three important validation fields: “Legal Name,” “Social Security Number (SSN)” and “Date and Place (City, State, Country) of Birth.”
DPSAC earlier reported over 90 discrepancies in NED data between April and July, 2018. These discrepancies caused unnecessary delays for individuals waiting for their 'Entrance on Duty' and/or issuance of their I.D. badge.
To avoid these delays, DPSAC offers readers the following tips:
Legal Name
The legal name entered must match the full legal name on both official documents used for enrollment. Nicknames (e.g., "Marjie," "Nick,") should not be used in place of the full legal name.
Social Security Number (SSN)
It is critical to enter an applicant’s correct SSN as reflected on their government-issued SSN card. Entering an incorrect SSN that happens to belong to a previous NIH worker results in the HHS Identity Management System assigning the previous worker’s HHS ID number to the applicant, which may cause issues with downstream NIH systems and applications.
This discrepancy will also cause the true owner’s NED record to be erased! This error has proven extremely difficult and time-consuming to correct.
Date and Place (City, State, Country) of Birth
Entering or validating an individual’s month and date of birth correctly is critical. AO sponsors should be aware that foreign passports often use the "Day/Month/Year” format. For example, a United Kingdom passport would indicate 9 April 1986 as the date of birth. Be on alert.
IMPORTANT: An individual’s “State of Birth” field in NED should be left BLANK if he or she was born in a foreign country.
DPSAC advises that if an individual is born in a foreign country, the ‘State of Birth’ field should be left blank. For example, if the individual’s city of birth is “Frankfurt” and the country is Germany, the AO should not select the State abbreviation “GU” (Guam, a U.S. territory). Additionally, DPSAC cautions AO sponsors not to confuse “Country of Birth” with “Country of Citizenship.”
One Final Reminder
The AO entering this information checks off the ‘I agree’ box at the bottom of the form, certifying that the Personally Identifiable Information (PII) for this individual “was entered by me using information from Section A of a completed HHS-745 HHS Badge ID Badge Request form that was signed by the individual. Further, that the ‘information provided with this application is complete and accurate to the best of my knowledge.”
According to the DPSAC Case Review Team Lead, “These issues can be avoided if the AO validates the personal data at the beginning of the data entry process. This is especially so if applicants enter the data themselves. Hopefully AOs reading this article will gain a better understanding of the need to validate personal information in NED.”
