(U) Audit of Official and Diplomatic Passport Records Maintained by the Bureau of Consular Affairs

(U) What OIG Audited
(U) A U.S. passport is an identity and citizenship document, allowing U.S. citizens to travel abroad. The Secretary of State has the authority to grant and issue U.S. passports. Within the Department of State (Department), the Bureau of Consular Affairs (CA) is responsible for adjudicating and issuing passports, including official and diplomatic passports, which are issued to individuals traveling abroad to carry out official or diplomatic duties on behalf of the U.S. Government or to family members of such persons.

(U) The Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted this audit to determine whether CA maintains accurate and complete records of official and diplomatic passports. This audit was conducted in response to a referral from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). According to the referral, in 2019, TIGTA requested from CA information associated with diplomatic and official passports issued to Internal Revenue Service employees and appointees for the last 20 years. TIGTA found that the data provided by CA were incomplete.

(U) What OIG Recommends
(U) OIG is making one recommendation to address an internal control deficiency identified with the review and validation of information provided to Federal customers. On the basis of CA’s response to a draft of this report, OIG considers the recommendation resolved, pending further action. A synopsis of CA’s response to the recommendation offered and OIG’s reply follow the recommendation in the Audit Results section of this report. CA’s response to a draft of this report is reprinted in its entirety in Appendix B.

(U) What OIG Found
(U) OIG tested selected data elements for accuracy from a statistical sample of 113 official and diplomatic passport records and found that all data elements tested were accurate. Accuracy refers to the extent that recorded data reflect the actual underlying information, which for a passport record would be the original passport application. Specifically, OIG tested six data elements: surname, given name, date of birth, gender, Social Security number, and place of birth.

(U) OIG also found that CA’s official and diplomatic passport records were complete. Completeness is the extent to which relevant data records and fields are present. OIG compared two external official and diplomatic passport record datasets with CA’s database and found that all passport records included in the external datasets were included in CA’s database. Specifically, OIG matched the passport numbers listed in the external datasets to records in CA’s database.

(U) OIG determined that passport records were accurate and complete because CA staff followed the policies and procedures related to processing and tracking passport applications. As a result, users, both internal and external to the Department, who rely on passport records can confidently use the data to perform their duties.

(U) With respect to TIGTA’s specific concerns about receiving incomplete data from CA, OIG found that CA’s database included Internal Revenue Service passport records. However, OIG also found that CA had not implemented effective internal control activities to ensure that the data provided to TIGTA in response to its request were properly reviewed and validated. As a result, CA failed to meet its objective of delivering a high level of customer service and earning customer trust, which consequently impacted TIGTA’s ability to conduct an audit of passport management and security at the Internal Revenue Service.