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.


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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