The State Department could enhance visa fraud prevention by strategically using resources and training, GAO has said.
State has tools and resources to assist consular officers in combating fraud (often involving applications for temporary visas where the intention is to emigrate), but lacks a policy for their systematic use, according to GAO-12-888.
It said for example that State recently implemented fraud prevention technologies such as a fraud case management system that establishes connections among multiple visa applications, calling attention to potentially fraudulent activity.
Overseas posts have fraud prevention units – FPUs — that consist of a fraud prevention manager – FPM — and locally employed fraud analysts. However, in 2011, the ratio of FPU staff to fraud cases varied widely across overseas posts, causing disproportionate workloads.
State offers anti-fraud training courses at the Foreign Service Institute and online, but does not require FPMs to take them and does not track FPMs’ enrollment, and consular officers receive limited fraud training as part of the initial consular course, GAO said.
Further, FPMs are not required to take advanced fraud training in new technologies.
State agreed to establish requirements for FPM training in advanced anti-fraud technologies, taking advantage of distance learning technologies, as well as to establish methods to track the extent to which requirements are met, among other recommendations.
