The Ministry of Interior, Geothermal Development Company under the Ministry of Energy, Kenyatta National Hospital and Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital have the highest number of employees with fake academic and professional papers.
This is according to a Public Service Commission (PSC) audit report on academic and professional certificates of all civil servants employed in the last 10 years.
The Commission revealed that out of 29,214 audit cases processed, it was found that over 2,000 fake academic and professional certificates were used to obtain jobs in government institutions.
According to PSC Chairperson Anthony Mwaniki Muchiri, more than 2,000 fake academic papers and professional certificates were used in the hiring of staff in the said state agencies.
Mr Muchiri said the number could go higher with the ongoing audit across all government departments and state agencies.
“Some 787 civil servants were found to have used fake certificates to obtain appointments, promotions or transfers, bringing the total to almost 2,000 fake certificates and documents,” Mr Muchiri said.
PSC found that the most common types of forgery in the public service are of academic certificates, alteration of Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) grades and several cases where certificates were presented to secure jobs but did not belong to the alleged holder.
Also rampant are cases of Bachelor’s degree certificates second division (lower) being altered to reflect second division (upper).
According to Mr Muchiri, one of the challenges the commission faces is where the implicated officers resign or apply for early retirement before disciplinary action is taken against them.
The audit covered all the Ministries, State departments and agencies. It also targeted 239 State corporations and semi-autonomous government agencies as well as 40 public universities and tertiary institutions.
PSC handed over the report to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to investigate and take action against the culprits.
EACC Chair David Oginde and CEO Twalib Mbarak, and Director of Criminal Investigations Mohamed Amin assured the public that action would be taken on such cases.
Mr Mbarak, said the commission will recover all monies paid to those found to have falsified their academic papers and that action will also be taken against the culprits.
“When we start using fake certificates, the message outside there is that don’t rely on the Kenyan certification system, people use a lot of bogus certificates. You are undermining the education system of this country,” Mr Mbarak said.
“Anybody who is found culpable will bear the consequences of their evil, including forfeiture of whatever they may have earned over the period that they served using the same fake certificate,” Mr Oginde said.
Some of the state agencies leading in staff with fake academic papers.
Photo credit: Nation Media Group
