GAO sting shows passport fraud remains a problem

Earlier this year, undercover investigators from the Government Accountability Office applied for and obtained three of seven passports they sought using common identity theft techniques. State Department officials issued five of the seven passports, but retrieved two from the mail before they were delivered -- after employees discovered the GAO sting.

"Despite multiple indicators of fraud and identity theft in each application, State identified only two as fraudulent during its adjudication process, and mailed five genuine U.S. passports to undercover GAO mailboxes," Gregory Kutz, GAO's managing director of forensic audits and investigations told members of a Senate Judiciary Committee panel Thursday.

U.S. passports are one of the most sought-after travel documents in the world, Kutz noted, because they allow holders entrance to the United States and visa-free passage to many other countries. As such, passport fraud is a serious threat to national security, he said.

Some of the red flags State adjudicators failed to identify included passport photos of the same investigator on multiple applications; a 62-year-old applicant using a Social Security number issued in 2009; passport and driver's license photos showing a 10-year age difference; and Social Security numbers of individuals long deceased.

"These were fraud indicators that should have been identified and questioned by State," Kutz said. "State also failed to cross-check the bogus citizenship and identity documents in the applications against the same databases that it later used to detect GAO's other fraudulent applications," he said.

Kutz said State employees used facial recognition technology to identify the photos of GAO undercover investigators in the two passports they had mailed and later retrieved. But they did not use the software to check the three applications GAO received, which all contained a passport photo of the same investigator, he noted.

Brenda Sprague, deputy assistant secretary of State for passport services, said the department is committed to improving security in issuing passports. Human error and an overwhelming workload contributed to the problem, she said. In 2009, State issued 13.5 million passport books and cards.

State has made changes to its adjudication process in response to previous investigations, including an undercover GAO sting last year. But a significant problem for State's Consular Affairs Bureau remains the verification of birth certificates in the absence of standard national formats -- more than 6,000 state and local jurisdictions issue birth certificates, and more than 14,000 versions are in circulation.

The fraudulent use of birth certificates is a significant factor in identity theft. For example, so widespread was the problem of using Puerto Rican birth certificates to obtain U.S. passports that in December 2009 the Puerto Rican government enacted a law invalidating all birth certificates issued before July 1, 2010. Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D-Md., chairman of the committee's Homeland Security and Terrorism panel, noted State had improved its process for issuing passports during the past year, but it wasn't nearly good enough. "We must do better. Much better," he said.

To give State better tools for vetting applications, Cardin introduced S. 3666, a bill that would give State officials access to more databases to verify applicants' identities.

He also said the department needs to consider recommendations from the National Federation of Federal Employees for improving the passport issuance process.

The union represents workers at 22 passport offices across the country. Rob Arnold, president of NFFE Local 1998, said in a statement that State's passport issuance process is too cumbersome and adjudicators are under enormous pressure to meet production quotas or risk losing their jobs.

State eliminated the production quota in the wake of GAO's 2009 undercover investigation, but brought it back in 2010, he said.

"The new production quota is actually lower than the one the agency used before they discontinued it," Arnold said. "But in bringing it back, the agency wrongly assumed that employees needed [to perform] more duties performed in a more regimented manner, so we're right back to a situation of needing adequate time."