HUMAN RESOURCE - The Minister of Public Service, Skills Development and Labour is vetting employees’ academic papers in an effort to stamp out alleged forgeries. Minister, Prof. Manasseh Nshuti confirmed the development on Friday when contacted on phone.

"Yes, the Minister of Education communicated to me over the matter. We have already started crosschecking the papers,” Nshuti said.

He said the verification process would be easy because the particulars of about 40,000 employees are already in the hands of the ministry.

"But it should not be dramatized to appear as if employees here are not qualified. Many of our employers were recruited on merit and competence,” Nshuti added.

A source from the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) said the ministry of Education had officially written to employers to verify their employees’ papers.

Education Minister Jeanne d’Arc Mujawamariya could not be reached for a comment by press time as she was not answering her cell phone.

However, she had earlier confirmed that government intended to probe employees’ papers in both public and private institutions to find out whether there are some people who could have forged their way to jobs they should never have had at all.

Minfotra’s vetting process comes just months after police arrested a self-proclaimed consultant, Rambeli Gatera, and National University of Rwanda lecturer, Emmanuel Gakwaya, for allegedly using forged academic papers.

Before his arrest, Gatera had been hired as a financial consultant at the Education ministry.

Concerns of employees with fraudulent academic transcripts came to the limelight during the Fourth Government Retreat at Akagera Game Lodge early this year. Ends