BOSNIA'S NEW BIOMETRIC PASSPORT RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT DATA

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SARAJEVO 000592 SIPDIS DEPT FOR CA/EX, CA/FPP, CA/VO, AND EUR/SCE (MIKE FOOKS); DEPT ALSO PASS TO KCC; POSTS FOR FRAUD PREVENTION MANAGERS; VIENNA FOR DHS MARLA BELVEDERE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PGOV KFRD CVIS CMGT CPAS ASEC BK SUBJECT: BOSNIA'S NEW BIOMETRIC PASSPORT RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT DATA RELIABILITY AND RECIPIENT AUDIENCE. REF: A) SARAJEVO 388 B) 08 SARAJEVO 1715 C) 08 SARAJEVO 1561 ¶1. (U) SUMMARY: Our Consular Section's Fraud Prevention Unit (FPU) visited several offices involved in data collection for passport issuance. The visits suggested that even if the Bosnian government hits its January 2010 production target for the new biometric passport, the data used to issue the new passports could be unreliable. Furthermore, as Croatians already have visa free access to the European Union, and Serbians are soon likely to benefit from liberalized EU access, these ethnic groups may choose to use Croatian and Serbian passports rather than a Bosnian passport. Thus, recipients of the new biometric passports could be limited to Bosniak (Muslim) Bosnians. END SUMMARY ¶2. Post's Fraud Prevention Unit (FPU) visited Banja Luka, the second largest city in Bosnia (BIH) and the Republika Srpska's capital. We wanted to visit offices that managed Bosnian passport production, and familiarize ourselves with the current standards applied by these offices. ¶3. We visited the Agency for Identification Documents, Data Registers and Data Exchange (formerly known as the Citizens Identification Protection System (CIPS),now IDDEEA.) The IDDEEA expects a new passport will be introduced in January 2010. They hope that this modern passport will assist Bosnia in joining the visa free European regime, and to increase Bosnian cross border crime-fighting capability. The IDDEEA works under the auspices of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and conducts a broad range of activities including the production of Bosnian passports, identity cards, ID's for foreigners, driver's licenses and vehicle registration documents. They maintain registers and databases for personal identification numbers (JMB),permanent and temporary residence in Bosnia, for fines and violations and for other databases required by Bosnian laws. ¶5. Data for passports is collected primarily by police officials at the municipality/cantonal level in the Bosnian Federation and at the municipality/regional level in Republika Srpska. The IDDEEA controls the production of travel documents after trained members of the police departments verify applicant documents during the application intake. Currently, only a half of BIH municipalities with approximately 80% of BIH population have their vital records scanned into a centralized municipal system. For those municipalities that have not finished the scanning process (do not have scanning capacity),documents are manually checked by the authorized official from the municipal administration and certified by his digitalized signature. Once passport requests are delivered to the IDDEEA headquarters in Banja Luka, the agency creates a passport record ( the agency maintains all databases and software involved in the passport issuance) and prints the passports. After the passports are printed, IDDEEA sends them to authorized local police stations for final distribution. (Note: Other participants in the passport process may include the Ministries of Interior and its police officers for civil passports; the Ministry of Civil affairs for service passports and legal regulations; and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for issuance of diplomatic passports. End Note). ¶6. The civilian IDDEEA Agency representatives were eager to distinguish themselves from their police counterparts whose illegal activities made headlines in the local media. Almost a dozen police officers largely from the Republika Srpska towns of Bijelina and Srebrenica as well as several from the Brcko District have been arrested and charged with malfeasance in issuing CIPS identity cards. The accused police officers manipulated data so that documents were issued to well-known criminals and other unauthorized holders. To distance themselves even further from the besmirched police, the IDDEEA/CIPS no longer will finance the cost of police office space (Refs A and C). ¶7. Recently enacted laws including the law on freedom of access to information covers the IDDEEA and establishes their jurisdiction and role. The new organization and legislation will give full control over the data acquisition centers for Bosnian identity documents (located in post offices) to local police stations. This, despite the recent problems with the police, as there is no apparent alternative to the police performing document intake. Full cooperation by the police is an antecedent step to issuance of the new biometric passport. SARAJEVO 00000592 002 OF 002 ¶8. Data acquisition will be the key element in the success of a new Bosnian passport. With intake accomplished in 142 locations and numerous municipalities, in addition to 42 Bosnian embassies abroad, the challenges will be great. (Note: As data collection at these police stations will be the critical filter for production of bona fide documents, we will monitor how successful the local police can be in maintaining appropriate controls, especially in light of the recent corruption cases against the police. End Note). ¶9. Fees for the new passport will rise from the current 15 euro to 35 euro, the average cost of biometric passports in the region. The new passport is expected to be produced in January 2010, after a six-month testing phase in the second half of 2009. The German company Bundesdruckerei won the contract to produce the passport. This passport will have fingerprints and an embedded microchip that contains bio-information. Furthermore, with the new passport, software will exist that automatically reports to Interpol all the lost and stolen Bosnian passports. ¶10. There are two key changes in the legislature controlling IDDEEA. The first change allows for collection of electronic data from municipal vital records. The second critical change is that all police officers involved in the passport issuance procedure will receive special mandatory training. Both legislative mandates will be essential for production of a secure passport. ¶11. When FPU visited the CIPS/IDDEEA office in Velika Kladusa we learned that the Velika Kladusa CIPS office has never hosted any inspection from Sarajevo or Banja Luka, and that they received little guidance for the passport system established in 2003. Their employees openly admitted that they do not keep any sample signatures of local public clerks (known as maticars). As such, some of the vital records critical for issuance of proper identification records may be suspect. ¶12. FPU will continue monitoring the evolution of the Bosnian passport process, as we want to be prepared for the arrival of the new passport, and the changes certain to be seen in the production of municipal vital records. ¶13. Comment: Bosnians are currently not pleased that they must renew their passports every five years, both because of the bureaucratic delays and cost. However, of even greater concern for many Bosniaks is that ethnic Croats benefit from free travel to the EU on Croatian passports. With Serbia likely to enter into a visa free status for the EU (as early as the end of 2009),ethnic Serbs will then likely elect to carry a Serbian passport. Even non-ethnic Serbs born in the southern Serbian Sanjak region (usually muslims currently living in the Federation) could theoretically apply for Serbian passports. Thus, the relevance of the Bosnian passport will be greatly diminished if a substantial portion of the population receives passports from neighboring countries. Additionally, tourist visas to the United States now have a ten year maximum for holders of Croatian passports and a three year maximum for holders of Serbian passports, while the Bosniaks hold a Bosnian passport that currently has a one year maximum validity visa. The effect could easily be a significant drop in requests for Bosnian passports, and increasing frustration among Bosniak Muslims about how differing visa requirements for Western Balkan states may contribute to, as Bosniak member of BIH presidency Harris Silajdzic often puts it, the creation of a Bosniak Muslim ghetto in the heart of the Balkans. End Comment. ENGLISH