Posted on 03/02/2003 4:59:56 AM PST by ninenot
A policy that lets people trying to fraudulently obtain Social Security cards leave with their bogus documents is coming under fire from congressional leaders after the federal inspector who blew the whistle was threatened with suspension.
U.S. Reps. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) and Jerry Kleczka (D-Wis.) said the policy should be changed, especially as concern over homeland security increases. Kleczka, who serves on the congressional committee that oversees the Social Security Administration, said he would ask for a hearing.
"It's a bad practice that has to be corrected," Kleczka said. Both congressmen said they were unaware of the practice until contacted by the Journal Sentinel.
The Social Security Administration's Inspector General's office has questioned the policy at least twice since July, but it has failed to get the policy changed, records show.
Those discussions were prompted by a series of e-mail messages from Mike Koll, resident agent in charge of the Wisconsin and Minnesota branches of the Inspector General's office, officials confirmed. The office is the investigative arm of Social Security.
Koll said Social Security instructs employees to return documents that are suspected of being phony to the person who tries to pass them off.
"So, if an illegal alien or a fugitive or a terrorist goes to a Social Security office to apply for a Social Security number . . . the policy is to not issue the card, return the fraudulent identity documents . . . and allow them to leave," Koll said.
"In light of September 11th and the homeland security issues now involved with fraudulent identities, this policy is nuts. I believe this policy is unreasonable and irresponsible and dangerous."
Citing his frustration with top bureaucrats, Koll provided the Journal Sentinel with the e-mail messages to document his efforts to get the policy changed. Since then, he has learned that he is facing a 10-day suspension for providing the documents to a reporter and has been ordered to grant no additional interviews.
Kleczka said Koll should not face punishment for "bringing forward this onerous practice in the agency" and should be protected as a whistle-blower.
Sensenbrenner, chairman of the House Judiciary committee, said it was "absolutely a silly policy" and should be changed. Both congressmen were given copies of the e-mail messages Koll gave the Journal Sentinel.
"They should seize suspected fraudulent documents and call the police," Sensenbrenner said. "The Social Security Administration has to recognize that these people can take these documents and use them elsewhere."
Among the documents that may be needed to obtain a Social Security card are a birth certificate, U.S. passport, documents from the former U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, a driver's license or insurance policy. As of March 1, the INS' functions were transferred to the Department of Homeland Security.
If legislation were needed to increase the penalties for attempting to obtain a Social Security card by fraud, he said, his committee would pass it "lickety split."
"But I don't think a change in the law is necessary to seize phony documentation. This is a bureaucratic problem. If you have a hot credit card and attempt to charge something, the merchant has no problem keeping the stolen card. Why would this be any more of a problem," Sensenbrenner said.
Social Security officials said they were concerned for the safety of the agency's employees who might be injured if a perpetrator became violent.
"Our employees are not law enforcement," said Philip Bryant, who manages the agency's 1,300 field offices nationwide. Bryant also noted that the employees are not document experts and cannot be "100 percent" sure the documents are fraudulent.
However, Sensenbrenner said the basis for the policy makes no sense because most federal offices have security officers, and "if they can't say 100 percent it's fraudulent, then call the police and turn it over to the FBI or someone who can."
"You shouldn't let someone who is attempting to defraud the government walk out the door scot-free," he said. "They have committed criminal fraud."
Spokesmen and records describe the agency's process this way:
In all cases, birth records submitted by U.S. citizens older than 1 are checked with the issuing agency to make sure they are authentic. The same is true for any documents issued by the former U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. The card is then mailed to the applicant. If the documents are found to be fraudulent, no card is issued, and a referral is made to the Inspector General's office.
If Social Security staffers suspect someone is submitting bogus documents of any type, the documents are photocopied, with the originals handed back to the perpetrator, who is allowed to leave. The information is then checked with the issuing agency to determine authenticity, and a referral is made to the Inspector General's office. The information also is logged into a computer to alert other offices that the documents may be bogus. If the person tries to obtain a Social Security card elsewhere, the same process occurs again: The suspicious documents are handed back to the person, who is allowed to leave.
Koll said that it sometimes take weeks before his office gets the information from Social Security.
Last year, Koll said, he tried to start a pilot project in Milwaukee that would have required area offices to confiscate fraudulent documents and immediately report the attempted crime to law enforcement. However, the Chicago regional office of the Social Security Administration refused to allow the project because of concerns for employee safety, he said.
Kleczka said his office was told that Social Security had been forwarding only about 30% of suspected fraudulent applications to the Inspector General's office. The congressman said that officials said last week that all of them now would be passed along.
"They claim they don't have the resources to refer 30 percent, so I think we're whistling in the wind thinking they are going to do 100 percent," Kleczka said.
Even if they are forwarded, cases of potential identity fraud may never be investigated.
"We have such a volume of work and so few agents that we don't get involved with many of these cases," said William Cotter, Koll's boss and special agent in charge of the Chicago regional Inspector General's office for Social Security. "We usually forward them on to other agencies. It could be Immigration. FBI, Customs, Department of State."
He said his region has 33 agents to cover six states: Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio.
Cotter said that he has discussed the policy with Social Security lawyers and that he has been told that the agency's employees "do not have the authority to seize those documents."
"It's not up to me to browbeat Congress," he said.
However, Jim Courtney, press officer for the Social Security Administration in Baltimore, said that the policy on document confiscation was an agency policy and not based on any legal rulings.
"Our office of general counsel has not said legally we cannot confiscate documents," Courtney said.
Koll sent an e-mail message to James G. Huse Jr., inspector general for the Social Security Administration, on June 10.
"I believe this is a homeland security issue and it deserves immediate attention," Koll wrote. "I cannot help but think that the American people would be outraged if they knew that a federal agency was giving counterfeit documents back to the criminals who presented them to illegally obtain an SSN. . . . Would a bank return counterfeit money to a customer? . . . It is my opinion that SSA is aiding and abetting a federal crime."
Huse responded on the same day:
"Mike, I'm checking this policy out before we fire the bullet. . . . This is frustrating stuff. These folks are not on the same priority timeline that we are."
Additional e-mail messages reflecting Koll's concern were sent to various agency employees, culminating Jan. 28 with a response from Pat O'Carroll, assistant inspector general for the office of investigations of the Social Security Administration.
O'Carroll explained that top Social Security officials still had no plans to change the policy, and the e-mail message indicated he remained troubled by it.
"The office of Inspector General cannot condone a policy that allows potential terrorists or those that might suborn the Social Security system, to depart a Social Security office with their fraudulent documents in hand," O'Carroll wrote.
In a recent interview, O'Carroll said, "The document speaks for itself."
Yep, that 'bout sums it up. Homeland Security folks need to stomp all over this one.....now that they can.
That should tell you something about how warped our priorities are today.
Even if they didn't have armed guards there, everyone knows when you deal with the government there are usually long waits involved. Tell the person you need to take their documents to make copies, go in the back room, call the cops and wait for them to arrive. Sheesh, even the DMV in my town does that, I know, it's kind of amazing, but they do.
So I asked them, don't you go after her? Don't you notify the original person? They looked at me as if I was nuts. There was at least one security guards - they did nothing. Sooner or later that crook will be successful with someone else.
Somebody explain to me how you'd have a U.S. passport and not have a SS number.
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