Around 620 Saudi govt officials found using fake degrees: report

RIYADH: According to media reports about 620 employees, working in different departments of Saudi Arabian government, have been found to have used forged or fake credentials to get high-level jobs.

The use of fake degrees was detected during a campaign launched last week by Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's (KSA) Ministry of Education and other concerned authorities, one of the reports quoted sources as saying.

The report added that a total of 234 doctorate, 230 masters and 56 bachelors degrees were found to be fake.

During the campaign, investigative teams were not able to authenticate the degrees found in the files of 234 leading officials in the posts of undersecretaries in five ministries, directors of administrations and general undersecretaries.

A leading official had to submit his resignation when it was found that he used a fake degree, the report said.

Over 2,000 government employees have applied for early retirement during the coming eight months, it said.

According to another report the Ministry of Higher Education has furnished ministries and governmental departments with new lists of employees who obtained post-graduate degrees from bogus universities.

In a circular addressed to one ministries, the ministry warned that those employees should be strictly banned from benefiting from any job privileges or academic titles unless the universities, which have issued the degrees, are recognized by the Ministry of Higher Education.

The ministry said it had received information that some of employees at key posts received their degrees from universities not accredited globally or locally.

Awarding degrees from academically poor universities will have adverse impact on the path of general education and on higher education, the ministry said.

The list reportedly contained employees holding the posts of “general managers,” “former mayors,” key pensioners and on-the-job officials.

Meanwhile, some of the ministries have begun scrutinizing degrees of their employees at top managerial posts who were included in the lists of the Ministry of Higher Education, in a step aimed to prevent passing fake certificates and punish their holders if proved they exploited such certificates to get higher posts and promotions.

The ministries have also taken measures to prevent the “infiltration” of fake certificates to their employees, notably those holding key posts.

The ministries also issued internal memos on not accepting any graduate degrees. The honorary degrees shall not be entitled for promotion unless approved by the Accreditation Department at the Ministry of Higher Education, the report said.