Kathmandu, August 18

The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority has said that cases related to fake academic credentials top the list of charge-sheets filed at the Special Court since the establishment of the anti-graft body, 29 years ago.

The CIAA was established in 1991. According to the anti-graft body, it filed as many as 2,437 cases at the court against civil servants, teachers and police personnel, among others, during the period. Annual average of the graft cases stand at around 84. The cases filed at the court remained 351, which is four times more than the average number.

On the subject-wise filing of cases, fake academic credentials outnumber other cases like those on corruption and irregularities, in the past 29 years. Statistics provided by the CIAA showed that it dealt with 1,106 cases of fake credentials, followed by bribery (487) and amassing disproportionate asset (102). However, cases of fake documents stood second in fiscal 2018-19, numbering 89, after bribery (147).

According to the CIAA, the tendency of submitting fake academic credentials, including teaching licences and citizenship certificates, for joining government service, getting promotion and receiving government facilities is rampant in public offices. Appointing, promoting and providing facilities to any person on the basis of bogus or forged academic certificates and other documents badly affect performance and service delivery of government offices. It is also detrimental to the morale of qualified and capable employees. A recent report of the CIAA said that it had accorded high priority to investigate suspicious academic credentials of government employees. An investigation by the anti-graft body showed that most of the employees submitting fake credentials were school teachers and police personnel. Health workers, technical and administrative employees of local levels were also among the persons who joined government services to benefit from promotions and other facilities by submitting fake documents. The CIAA has urged the government and the authorities concerned to verify the authenticity of academic credentials of the candidates applying for government jobs to ensure that only genuine candidates are selected for the government.