Report: Passport System Flawed

A year after the Canadian government suspended its new program to process passport applications—after a CBC investigation found “widespread glitches” with the program—an internal review of the program has concluded, determining that the federal agency didn’t take proper security measures when implementing the new program.

The Global Case Management Program was to be one part of the 101 million passport program modernization initiative. Although the department responsible for the program, now called Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship (IRCC), was said to have implemented several oversight benchmarks, the audit found “no evidence” that the security plan was being followed.

Read more: Another Delay for Electronic Travel Authorization

Last year the agency said it was “pausing” the program to apply “lessons learned” but at least 1,500 passports were issued under the flawed system. What’s more, the department has said that it has continued to process refugee travel documents through the system since 2016.

The agency contends that no passports issued have security gaps, but CBC/Radio Canada reportedly found evidence that employees could alter passport photos, and further reported “numerous reports” of discrepancies between information found on the passports and what exists in the master database.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada has suspended its use of a new system to process passport applications after widespread glitches with the program were reported.

Read more: Dual Citizen? Better Update Your Canadian Passport

The audit report has included six recommendations for fixing the system, and reportedly management has accepted all recommendations.

For more information on this story, visit CBC.ca.

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