OTTAWA — It could be months or even years before the federal government closes a security gap that enabled an accused Russian spy to obtain a Canadian passport.

More than a year after Auditor General Sheila Fraser slammed the government for lax passport security, Ottawa is still working on an electronic system to authenticate provincial documents.

A summary of the spy case filed in court Wednesday says a man alleging to be Paul William Hampel presented a phoney Ontario birth certificate to successfully obtain passports in 1995, 2000 and 2002.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service contends Hampel used the bogus documentation to operate clandestinely as an agent of the SVR, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, for more than a decade.

The government has signed a rarely used national security certificate to deport Hampel on grounds he is a threat to Canada.

The summary filed in Federal Court says CSIS confirmed through the Registrar General of Ontario that no birth or death records existed pertaining to a Paul William Hampel born on his supposed birthdate of Dec. 11, 1965. In addition, his birth certificate number is legally assigned to another person.

CSIS says information provided by the federal passport office reveals Hampel provided the fraudulent birth certificate as official proof of his identity, allowing him to obtain his first passport in 1995.

In April last year, a highly critical report by Fraser, the federal spending watchdog, said Passport Canada was bedevilled by inadequate watch lists, outdated technology and poor record-checking.

"There are clearly very serious weaknesses in the passport office,'' Fraser told a news conference at the time. "And the potential is there for abuse.''

The auditor found Passport Canada had not come up with ways to easily check the identity data on birth and citizenship certificates against the documents' original source.

In addition, examiners lacked some basic tools, such as magnifying glasses, to detect fraudulent documents. And checks with some guarantors -- people who vouched for an applicant -- were not always carried out, monitored and recorded.

Fraser's report said the passport office "cannot effectively authenticate an applicant's identity and determine eligibility in all cases.''

The government is developing a national routing system that would link provincial bureaus of vital statistics, allowing passport examiners to immediately verify birth data presented on passport applications.

A recent federal progress report says the "complex'' initiative, while the subject of a pilot project, has yet to receive final policy approval or funding.

The report says work on the routing system is to continue in 2006-07, with a decision on the project expected the following year.

A Passport Canada spokesman referred media inquiries Wednesday to Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day's office. Day spokeswoman Melisa Leclerc not available for comment.