CSC Orders Examination of Academic Credentials for Kuwaiti and Expat Public Sector Staff

This news has been read 5878 times!

KUWAIT CITY, March 14: The Civil Service Commission (CSC) has started implementing the directive of HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Dr Mohammad Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah to examine the academic certificates of State employees, reports Al-Qabas daily quoting a government source. The source told the daily that the decision covers all State employees — citizens and expatriates — who obtained post-secondary certificates from the beginning of 2000 till date and that the examination will not be limited to one party. The source said the CSC has informed all government agencies and public institutions about the need to submit the academic certificates of their employees, along with the equivalencies; in preparation for examining the equivalencies and academic certificates to ensure their validity.

Explained
He explained that the government agencies, including the Ministries of Education and Endowments, and other bodies have informed their employees in this regard; calling on other entities to take the same measure. He added that uploading academic certificates and their equivalencies on the automated system is just an initial step, affirming more steps will follow later to examine the certificates. The source indicated that the first step is examining the certificates obtained outside the country. “If the employee’s certificate has no equivalency as per the procedures followed by the Ministry of Higher Education, the ministry will be asked to take measures to ensure the validity of the certificate by addressing the cultural offices and the university from which the certificate was obtained and then issue the equivalency. If the certificate has an equivalency, the ministry will be asked to verify its validity,” the source added.

Certificates
He pointed out that the easiest certificates to examine are those obtained in Kuwait, so they will be left for the final stage and the higher education institutions in the country will be asked to ensure their authenticity. He stressed that the examination procedures require a great deal of time and effort and that the authorities must quickly provide the CSC with the required data, so it can take measures to verify the authenticity of the certificates. Regarding the legal procedures in proving the invalidity of a certificate, the sources said the procedures include referral to the Public Prosecution and holding the certificate holder accountable.

The source explained that the issue of fake and forged certificates is not urgent, as the war waged by the ministry against the so-called ‘education shops’ started early, with the suspension of many suspicious universities in several countries like the Philippines and others during the terms of two former ministers of Education — Dr Moudhi Al-Hamoud and Nouriya Al-Sabeeh. However, the issue reached its peak in 2018 when then Minister of Education and Higher Education Dr Hamid Al-Azmi submitted hundreds of forged certificates to the prosecution.

This facilitated the process of examining the certificates that are currently taking place, as certain procedures must be followed, including the complete Kuwaitization of the equivalency management in 2018 and the establishment of a list of equivalencies in 2019, which served as a barrier to counterfeiters, the source narrated. The source also revealed that the committees in government agencies started examining academic certificates at the time, but this was halted during the Corona crisis. Since 2018, the ministry has adopted the idea of establishment of an automatic number for each issued equivalency, which serves as a reference and identifier for the equivalence on the ministry’s website and allows the entities that receive the certificate to verify its authenticity by entering the automated number on the site. Therefore, the equivalencies issued after this date will be easier to obtain, review, and examine, the source added.

Prohibits
The source also underscored the need to implement law number 78/2019, which prohibits the use of non-equivalent academic certificates, indicating many public sector employees have non-equivalent certificates due to the failure to activate the law. The source pointed out that updating the lists of universities accredited by the ministry contributed to stopping many suspicions of forged, fictitious and weak certificates; especially after reducing the number of accredited universities in Egypt to only seven and in Jordan to only five universities.

This news has been read 5878 times!