Following a directive in late-2016 of the President of the 5th-Phase Government of Tanzania, verification (by a Special Presidential Task Force) of the academic credentials of reportedly 400 035 civil servants who draw emoluments from Government coffers unearthed much rot! The probe revealed that 9,932 public service employees got where they are today on the back of educational certificates which were either forged outright, borrowed, bought or stolen.

The Ministry of Health in Paraguay detected two forged nursing degrees from a non-existent university. The case involves a health official and an IPS official. The complaint has been filed with the Public Prosecutor's Office.

Cheating in exams, especially ones that could lead to jobs in the public sector, has reached epidemic proportions in India, and the means employed by young people in order to cheat compete with the methods employed by examiners to stop them. During a written recruitment test for entry into the Indian army held in the Bihar state, candidates has to strip down to their underwear in order to prevent any attempt to cheat.

Government’s plan to draft in a policy to target qualification fraud is expected to reap positive results for South Africa, including ensuring that South African tertiary institutions are not robbed of the reverence many of them have earned for decades. One of the main benefits would be that CV verification will become standardised, ensuring accuracy and no room for deviation, in both the public and private sectors.