Probe into dud degree claim at Ministry

THE ATTORNEY-general’s office is said to be investigating to what extent a senior Education Ministry employee submitted false documents to secure a promotion.
The investigation, reported in Phileleftheros yesterday, was launched after the AG received a complaint from another ministry employee who had applied for and failed to secure the same promotion.

According to the report it was not uncommon for civil servants to submit dubious postgraduate degrees when applying for a more senior position.
The Legal Services are believed to have asked the Education Service Committee (ESC) to examine the issue regarding the employee under investigation. According to the committee, however, the questionable PhD was not taken into account to promote the specific inspector as it was not a perquisite for the position.

Nevertheless, the issue raises the wider problem of dud degrees. Ministry officials told the daily that in the recent past there had been a number of cases involving promotions secured by the use of ambiguous degrees, including positions of assistant principal and principal. Sometime, the degrees were from totally unheard of educational institutions.
The reason for the practice is that apparently a master degree gives candidates three units and a PhD five units, placing them ahead of other candidates on the promotion list.
It is then usually rival candidates who call the degrees into question and submit their objections. The ESC then examines the objection and either rejects or approves it. If it approves it, the committee can then forward the questionable degree to KYSATS, the island’s degree recognition board, to authenticate it. Where the ESC rejects the claim, plaintiffs have the right to move forward with legal measures.

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