Gov’t prepared to publish ‘list of shame’ for holders of fake academic documents – Makuei

JUBA – South Sudan’s information minister and government spokesman Michael Makuei Lueth said on Friday that the government is set to publish names of more than 400 South Sudanese who have forged academic documents from neighboring countries to shame them.

The fake academic documents including Bachelor Degrees, Masters and PhDs were mainly brought from the neighboring Uganda and Kenya, according to government spokesman, Michael Makuei Lueth.

In Uganda, 126 academic documents were confirmed in 2019 and 276 between 2015-2018 which include 47 Bachelors, 28 Diplomas, 11 Certificates, and 40 Ugandan Certificates of Education.

In Sudan, 24 Secondary School Certificates were confirmed forged.

In South Sudan, 29 Secondary School Certificates and 232 Primary School Certificates were confirmed forged.

In Kenya, 402 Certificates were confirmed including Bachelor Degrees, Diplomas and Certificates and 16 other documents including 2 Certificates of Secondary Education, 1 primary Certificate, 13 bachelors, and Diplomas.

Speaking to reporters after the cabinet meeting on Friday, Information Minister, Makuei said the figure shows that there are a lot of forged academic documents being used mostly by government employees in the country.

“The Cabinets were satisfied with the report and adopted that all those who are in possession of forged documents; their names should be released officially as a list of shame,” Minister Lueth told reporters in Juba on Friday.

He said fraudulent qualifications posed a grave danger to the credibility of the country’s education system.

“If you are an honest person, you are not supposed to acquire fake document and use it for employment only,” he said.

“I fact, in the course of doing that, you are harming the government and your own people and the country  as well because you will be given an assignment in which you will know performance because you have done a study and not qualified it,” he added.