Bolivia government finds 400,000 duplicate id numbers

LA PAZ: The head of the Bolivian office responsible for issuing personal identification numbers said Saturday that police have issued more than 400,000 duplicate id numbers.

Antonio Costas heads the Personal Identification Service (SEGIP), a bureau that last month took over from police the task of issuing ID cards.

"There are more than 400,000 duplicates," Costas told Bolivision local television.

"The repeated numbers were detected in different departments of Bolivia, and cases have been identified. We are consolidating databases that will allow us to determine who is responsible," he said.

Police, who had handled the task for decades, had paper files that were entered manually and not linked to other cities. The new office has begun to digitize the information.

The government created SEGIP after repeated allegations of corruption in the police office that issued the identification numbers, which are the primary form of id in Bolivia.

"The problem now is what to do with the duplicate numbers," said Costas. "We will analyze each case, and if there is a conflict, the person with the most seniority gets the number and the other person will be assigned a new number."

The 400,000 duplicate numbers account for 8 percent of the national electoral rolls, comprised of about 5 million voters.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011