The senior management of the Social Security Board is in knots tonight as auditors are in the thick of an intensive internal probe, after allegations have emerged that social security cards are being falsified and sold to illegal immigrants. One employee in the registration and identification department, which issues' cards, was fired on Friday, reportedly for selling several cards with false identities. But the clerk didn't just make up false identities, he allegedly took Belizean names from registration records, and falsely attached them to cards bearing pictures of persons with illegal status. That means that someone could be running around with another persons' identity, as registered by the Social Security Board. It's a frightening thought but one that has become suddenly real for Edwin Logan, a Belize City resident of the Lake Independence area, who was called into the Social Security office in Belize City last week to be told that as far as the system has it recorded, he's now someone else! Here's the story:
Indira Craig reporting,
Social Security ad
La nueva tarjeta, tu llave a un mejor futuro.
Di new card da yu key to a secure future
No matter how many languages you say it in, that message now rings hollow for Edwin Logan, whose identity, he claims, was sold by the Social Security Board (SSB). That's right. On Friday Logan was called in by the Social Security Board administrators, to clear up what they called a minor administrative error but it turned out to be an outright betrayal of the fundamental responsibility that the Social Security office is entrusted with:
Edwin Logan
When I went into the office the guy told me that, oh, it was just a mistake. He said that they just have a second person by the name of Edwin Wilson Logan with the same date of birth, age and every thing, noh. Date of birth and age and everything and the same address but I said how could that be. I need some more information. I need to see every record and I need to see exactly who is that person that names like me who is carrying my name and my address because something went wrong. They refused to give me things that I needed, I told them this is my identity and you are playing with my identity, you have been selling my identity I need to get a copy of this picture and they refused to give a copy to me.
And his insistence on getting to the bottom of it is what revealed this ultimate betrayal. Through the manipulation of the social security system, Edwin Logan had become someone else, a Nigerian man whom he's never met, and whom he may never find. But this mystery man now carries his identity. And while the Social Security managers claim it is a mistake, he's sure there was no mistake, just an outright sellout of the one thing you shouldn't be able to buy - another man's name:
Edwin Logan
If it was a mistake, where are the records. There is no records, there is no records, where are the paper work if it was a mistake and if they showed me the paperwork I could have gotten over it. I know somebody is doing it intentionally for a business, somebody has been collecting money over the counter.
And perhaps with the complicity of SSB personnel, the man who would be Edwin Logan has gone so far as to nearly perfect his signature.
Edwin Logan
His signature is 90% my signature and when I looked at the screen, right, and the lady in the office looked at the screen, they told me that's my signature. I said, are you people crazy. I said, look at that signature good. That's not my signature.
And that outrage of having everything that defines him in the world - having had that ripped off - still eats at Edwin Logan - as he's now shadow boxing with an unknown identity clone.
Edwin Logan
It does make me angry and very, very upset. I have a terrible headache for the past couple weeks because I can't even believe they have sold my identity. I mean, they have to pay me for damages they have done to me because they have me walking in fear. I have my house, I have my land, I have my properties that this guy could take account of you understand me and he could destroy me so much.
And now Logan says he won't give up the fight to reclaim his identity and see that Social Security admits to its error.
Edwin Logan
I don't think I will ever give up until I get satisfaction.
Indira Craig
What is satisfaction in your eyes?
Edwin Logan
Well my satisfaction is whoever is bear... carrying my identification or bearing it right now I wish that the Social Security, the Police and the Immigration could get together and do something to apprehend this person and let him serve his time and do whatever they have to do to make me feel satisfied and safe once more. And beside that, I just wish that the Social Security can pay me for the damages that they have caused to me internally for selling my identity cause they did this intentionally.
It's a strong case made by a man who's been betrayed in the most fundamental way. And while Social Security managers may discount Logan's debacle as an unfortunate mix-up, with the Social Security Board still muted on the issue, the question is whether what is claimed to be a clerical error could be just a drop in a bucket of wider and untold corruption.
Social Security's Public Relations Manager Marta Hendricks was unable to provide comment this evening. One complicating factor for Logan is that his passport was stolen on April the 23rd. The social security card with his name, his number, his address and someone else's picture was purported to have been issued on April the tenth. There are reports from the police that the Nigerian man who stole all this has been arrested and charged, but we could not confirm this information. Internal auditors continue an extended countrywide probe into the fake cards this week; we say extended because it was originally supposed to have ended on Friday, July 5th.