Management of the Department of State Office of Passport Services Needs To Be Improved

Gao ID: ID-81-39 August 6, 1981

GAO reviewed the Department of State's Office of Passport Services, the Travel Document Issuance System (TDIS), the Passport Files Miniaturization (PFM) system, passport records storage, passport fraud programs, special handling fees, and the Passport Lookout System. The objective of the review was to evaluate the effectiveness of these functions within the Department.

TDIS, the Department's new computerized system for issuing passports, is plagued by deficient planning. TDIS will cost between $12 to $15 million over the next 4 years, and management needs to take on more comprehensive planning. The PFM system is another problem area that has presented difficulties to the passport management staff. Because of technical complications within the system, operational performance troubles, and inadequate management attention to the new file system, a severe backlog of work has developed, clogging the system with over 2 million passport applications. Still another related records management problem is the storage of original passport records. Costing over $200,000 each year, the Department has over 140 million passport documents in storage. One of the most severe problems facing the Department is that of passport fraud. Although the Department discovered 1,002 cases of passport fraud in fiscal year 1980, it has been presumed that this is just the tip of the iceberg. GAO identified two operational areas of concern that are performed as daily passport functions: (1) the inequitable provision for the special handling of passports that require fast delivery because of urgent departure dates or because of requests by passport applicants; and (2) the operation of the Passport Lookout System, a system that is used to screen passport applications for administrative, law enforcement, and national security purposes. GAO believes that the system is basically sound but is experiencing a number of difficulties.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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