BY: HAJA HAWA KOROMA
The Anti-Corruption Commission has on the 19th April 2022 issued out a press statement calling on all PUBLIC SECTOR INSTITUTIONS TO IMMEDIATELY CONDUCT ACADEMIC CREDENTIALS VERIFICATION/AUDIT. This was as a result public discussions relating to the issuance of Certificates (Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctorate Degrees) by mainly, the Dominion Christian University (DCU) and the African Graduate University (AGU) being that these Certificates derived from the aforementioned universities are deemed to be “fake” since the said institutions are not accredited to award such Certificates.
This was confirmed by a Press Release that was issued out by the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) dated 8th April, 2022, in which it was clearly stated that AGU is not accredited nor a recognized University in Sierra Leone.
It was also alleged that some employees that have been working within the Civil and Public Sector are in possession of these “fake” Certificates not just from the aforementioned universities but from other sources of fake or unaccredited institutions and may have used them to gain employments, promotions and other forms of benefits in the Civil and Public Service undeservedly conferring an “advantage” on themselves within the meaning of corruption in the Anti-Corruption Act of 2008 as amended in 2019.
This prompted the ACC to hereby confirm that recruitments, promotions, assessments, reviews, transfers, punishments etc. within the Civil and Public Service are primarily the functions and mandates of the Public Service Commission (PSU), the Human Resource Management Office (HRMO), the Public Sector Reform Unit (PSRU) and Cabinet Secretariat. Therefore, these aforementioned Departments are expected to provide leadership in ensuring that employees within the Civil and Public Service hold genuine qualifications required for a specific job/position. The various administrative and human resources offices/officers within Public institutions also have a responsibility to ensure that proper qualifications are used to access public jobs/positions.
In order to collaborate with these entities in the midst of the on-going allegations that people within the Public Service are holding these fake Certificates, the ACC is calling on ALL Ministries, Departments, Parastatals and Agencies of Government through their Human Resource Divisions/Units or Internal Audit Units to immediately carry out verification audit on ALL Certificates used by employees to gain employment, promotions and other benefits within their respective institutions of work and furnish the outcomes of same to the ACC by way of referral.
In addition to this, the ACC has set up a ‘Task Force’ comprising Investigators and Prevention Officers, to progressively do a credential integrity review for Public Officers with the mandate to look into employments, promotions of persons within the broad spectrum of the Civil and Public Service, who would have willfully and knowingly used or submitted what would amount to “fake” Certificates/Degrees in order to confer Advantage on themselves – as the conduct, once established may constitute a corruption offence as stipulated in Section 128(3) of the Anti-Corruption Act 2008 as amended in 2019.
Furthermore the public is hereby informed that, this should be part of normal administrative responsibilities of institutions as the ACC had in 2021 conducted similar verification audit on ‘All’ its staff, and reports that no staff within the employ of the Commission holds Certificate(s) from DCU or AGU. The Commission further did a full confirmatory verification of degrees with the respective Universities, including the University of Sierra Leone, Njala University and UNIMAK. One staff who had stated that he had a degree and it turned out he was still pursuing his degree was summarily dismissed by the Commissioner after the credentials audit.
The Commission wishes to reassure the general public of its relentless efforts to consistently fight acts of corruption at all levels in Sierra Leone, especially in public sector institutions.
