UPDATED at 6:00 p.m.: Updated to include U.S. State Department concerns about alleged improprieties involving Collin County staff procedures.

UPDATED at 4:17 p.m.: Updated to include more comments from Finley, as well as more information about the investigation, allegations against the Collin County passport offices, and comment from the State Department.

Collin County travelers can blame U.S. State Department officials in Dallas for closing the county's main passport offices, District Clerk Lynne Finley says, even as the federal agency now expresses concerns about alleged improprieties that she says are unfounded.

In December, the Dallas Passport Agency sent Finley a letter saying her office would no longer be able to process passport applications. She says the move is retaliation for pointing out flaws in the Dallas office's application procedures.

District Clerk Lynne Finley poses for a portrait outside the Collin County passport office, which has been closed, on Thursday, February 21, 2019 at the Collin County Courthouse in McKinney. (Ashley Landis/The Dallas Morning News) (Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer)

"It's just unacceptable," Finley said. "I need to let people know the level of fraud we're talking about and the people we're talking about."

Requests for comment from the Dallas Passport Agency, a branch of the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs, were referred to Washington, where a State Department official would not directly comment on the suspension.

"There are seven additional passport acceptance facilities located in or near Collin County where customers can apply for their passports. Customers can visit our website, travel.state.gov, to find the closest facility," the official said.

The Collin district clerk's passport offices have been closed since Dec. 21, when Finley's office received a letter from the Dallas Passport Agency shuttering passport services because the offices at the Collin County Courthouse and in Plano "may have failed to follow ... guidelines and procedures that adversely impact the integrity of the passport acceptance process."

The suspension of services is part of a five-year State Department investigation into passport fraud, according to a Collin County news release.

The district clerk's offices handled almost 40,000 passport applications last year, the release states. The Diplomatic Security Service told Finley that her office "may have received one suspect passport application out of that 40,000, and exonerated her, her staff and the procedures they follow," the release states.

Criticism of Dallas agency

While cooperating with that investigation, Finley said, she criticized the procedures of the Dallas Passport Agency. On Jan. 10, agents told her that the investigation did not involve Collin County or its employees and that they personally disagreed with the suspension.

At that time, Finley offered suggestions to the agency for how to stop fraud. Officials in Dallas later told her the Collin offices would remain closed, without specifying any procedural violations.

"No other counties' passport offices have been suspended in relation to this investigation that we're aware of," Finley said in the county news release. "This jeopardizes at least four of my employees' jobs if this needless suspension continues much longer."

State Department concerns

On Thursday, after Finley spoke to The News about her qualms with the continued closure, the U.S. Department of State sent Collin County Commissioner Darrell Hale a letter, laying out concerns about how Finley's office handled expedited passport applications.

In the letter, a State Department official described two complaints against Finley's office. In the first, agents interviewed a district clerk's office employee who they say had "a possible inappropriate relationship" with a local passport expediting service. According to the letter, the employee told agents "that she had worked with various passport and visa expediting companies over the years."

Such a relationship, the letter continued, is "in direct violation" of department guidelines that "ensure that every aspect of the passport application acceptance process is void of any impropriety, real or perceived."

Finley said the claim is false. She said the employee told agents she had a transactional relationship, if any, with local expediting services. The office occasionally communicates with such private companies if applicants visit both offices.

"There is no relationship other than we call them when someone comes in to make sure there's not too much of a wait," Finley said. "There's really nothing to say."

The letter also described an incident in which a Collin County man reported a lost or missing passport and visited the district clerk's Plano passport office to renew his passport. When it did not arrive on time, he came back to the office and was told to provide his credit card information. The man said his card was run twice, once for $280 and once for $270.

When his passport still didn't arrive, he checked with the Dallas Passport Agency, which tracked the passport to an expediting company in Plano called Passport and Visa Express.

Finley said her employees do not charge anyone and suggested the man may have confused the official Collin County office with the expediting company. The district clerk's Plano office shares a parking lot with the company named in the letter.

The State Department's letter said that the allegations are "a serious offense and pose a threat to the integrity of the passport acceptance process." It gave Collin County officials 14 days to respond in writing, and said that "any statements from individuals should be submitted/signed under penalty of perjury."

Finley said the allegations are unfounded.

"Why the State Department has decided to stick their heels in on this, they're just trying to cover their own incompetency," she said. "I am pissed."

The Collin County district clerk's office, which is overseen by the Dallas Passport Agency, brings in more than $1 million annually in handling fees for the county's general fund, according to Finley's release.

Other application options

As long as district clerk's passport offices are closed, Collin County residents will have to make appointments at selected post offices, the Frisco Public Library or another county's office. They also can complete a mail-in application, if eligible. Go to travel.state.govfor more information.

Staff reporter Marc Ramirez contributed to this story.

CLARIFICATION: This article involves involves the Collin County District Clerk's office, which handles records and court papers for the county. That office is separate from the Collin County Clerk's office, which works with the county commissioner's court and is custodian of birth and death certificates, marriage licenses and oversees elections. The headline and article have been revised to clarify the office involved.