21 under probe over fake qualifications

KIGALI - The academic papers of 21 practicing nurses are under the spotlight because they cannot be traced within the databank of Rwanda National Examination Council (RNEC). This is part of a stepped-up campaign to crackdown on cheats. RNEC Executive Secretary, John Rutayisire, confirmed the development on Friday and acknowledged that the academic papers of 21 nurses were not in their data bank.“We have written to Ministry of Health informing them of the discovery. It’s up to them to take up the matter,” Rutayisire said.The examination council started investigating papers of all practicing nurses after allegations emerged that some of them could be using forged papers.According to RNEC, other employees whose academic papers have also been examined work with the Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) Rutayisire said RRA were the first to send the list of its employees whose papers were in doubt for verification. “We have also discovered that academic papers of a couple of employees at the revenue authority are not in our data bank,” Rutayisire added in an interview on phone.He said the Health Ministry and RRA forwarded academic particulars of all employees who were trained in Rwanda for verification. All people who were educated in Rwanda usually have their academic particulars kept in RNEC data banks. A highly placed source within the Ministry of Health told The Sunday Times on Friday that the nurses currently under probe are those who graduated between 2003 and 2005.The move has reportedly sent the nurses into panic.Health Minister Dr Jean-Damascene Ntawukuriryayo said the 21 nurses named in the alleged scam are in big trouble. “It is not only sacking them. We shall take them to court. The law governing the high council of nurses is clear. Forging papers is criminal,” Ntawukuriryayo warned by phone on Friday. Ntawukuriryayo revealed that last month the ministry in conjunction with the police and RNEC discovered that academic papers of five nurses were not genuine and immediately were sacked then. “The war against forged academic papers is on course in our ministry and there is no mercy,” the minister warned.A source at the Ministry of Health told Sunday Times last week that because doctors and nurses handle people’s lives, they must be qualified and with proven integrity.“No country in the world is tolerant with unqualified medical practitioners. A gambler cannot handle people’s lives,” the source added. “The probe may take time but it will achieve its goal at the end of the day,” Rutayisire had earlier said, stressing that the government wanted to solve the question of academic papers once and for all.When contacted, the RRA Commissioner General, Mary Baine, said sacking employees who provide wrong information about their academic past is ideal.“If an employee gives wrong information then relevant organs will discipline such a person,” Baine said.She however added that she was unaware of the new development at RNEC about RRA staff in connection with forgery and said she needed time to cross-check.The Ministry of Health put in place a professional nursing council charged with monitoring and ensuring that medical practitioners’ professional ethics are upheld. Before the council admits anyone, his or her papers must go through RNEC for vetting. According to Rutayisire, RNEC intends to scrutinize all Advanced Level Certificates to ascertain whether those enrolled to Institutions of Higher Learning joined on merit.The probe sounds comprehensive because at some level, the vetting exercise will involve marked earlier to see whether they correspond with candidates’ registration numbers. Other measures put in place to unearth academic forgery include scrutinizing Senior Six examination answer sheets. This is to check whether names, registration numbers and photos of candidates match what is stored in RNEC’s databank.Police says Interpol had been contacted to help in verifying those who claim to have been trained outside the country.The probe into the academic papers comes months after police arrested a self-proclaimed National University of Rwanda (NUR) lecturer, Emmanuel Gakwaya, for allegedly using forged academic papers. Documents at CID headquarters indicated that Gakwaya got Masters and PhD degrees on the same day at non-existent US University.He was arrested with another ‘consultant’, Lambert Gatera, who had been hired as a financial consultant in the Ministry of Education.The National Council for Higher Education is a government’s agency mandated to ensure quality and oversee the planning of all tertiary institutions in the country. The body recently directed that all universities forward academic papers of their lecturers for verification. Concerns of employees with fraudulent academic transcripts reportedly came to limelight during the Fourth Government Retreat at Akagera Game Lodge early this year.Ends