Birth Certificate Fraud (OAI-01-86-00001; 03/88)

BIRTH CERTIFICATE FRAUD

OFFICE

OF INSPECTOR

GENERAL

OFFICE OF ANALYSIS AND INSPECTIONS

MARCH

1988

OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERA

The mission of the Offce of Inspector General (OIG) is to promote the efficiency, effec

tiveness and integrity of programs in the United States Department of Health and

Human Services (HHS). It does this by developing methods to detect and prevent fraud

waste and abuse. Created by statute in 1976, the Inspector General keeps both the

Secretary and the Congress fully and

rrently informed about programs or management.

problems and recommends corrective action. The OIG performs its mission by conduct

cated around the country.

ing audits, investigations and inspections with approximately 1 200 staff strategically lo

OFFICE OF ANALYSIS ANI; INSPECTIONS

This report is produced by the Office of Analysis and Inspections (OAl), one of the three

abuse. major offices within the OIG. The other two are the Office of Audit and the Office of In

vestigations. The OAi conducts inspections which ate tyically short-term studies designed to determine program effectiveness, efficiency and vulnerabilty to fraud or

THIS REPORT

This report is entitled Birth Certificate Fraud. It waS prepared following a review con ducted to help lU-IS and other interested parties to gain a current overvew of (1) the vul nerabilities to fraud in birth certificate forms and procedures of issuing and user agencies

and (2) the best practices among State and local jurisdictions to minimie these vul

nerabilities.

The report was prepared by the Regional Inspector General, Office of Analysis and In spections, New York Region. Participating on the review were the following:

Project Staff/Region II Lucile Cop Jack Molnar Pereta Rodriguez

Renee Schlesinger

Region I Thomas Nee

Region IX Deborah Harvey

Project leader

Alan S. Meyer, Ph.

Deputy

egional Inspector General

Region II

Headquarters

Gail Shelton

BIRTH CERTIFICATE FRAUD

001 OAI-86-02-

Richard P. Kusserow

INSPECTOR GENERAL

MACH 198

PREFACE

. . . the foundation, or breeder document, for almost any other kid ofiden tification for citizens is the birth certificate. Over 7 000 State and local vital records offices issue birth certificates with no uniform standards for issuance processes, controls, or quality of dOClments. . In some jurisdictions, birth cer tificates are easily counterfeited, obtaied through imposture, or created from stolen legitimate blan form. II *

*From Report of the Task Force on Criminal Implications of False Identifica tion of the Fifth Conference of the Judiciar held by Laws At Work on May 23- , 1984 in Los Angeles.

...................... ............ . .. ... ... .................. ................

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

PREFACE

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .................................. ......... I

INTRODUCTION ... ....... ....

.. 1

FI N DI N GS ............................. ..................

. 3

I. The Problem ............................................. 3

II. The Issuing Agencies....................... 8

II. The Birth Documents....................... 10

IV. The Issuing Procedures

V. The User Agencies .................................... 16

RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................. 21

APPENDICES

A. Best Practices............................................ A 1

B. Comments on Draft Report

and OIG Comments...

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