On March 4, 2020, Noé Woïn, director-general of the Institute of Agricultural Research for Development (IRAD) fired 11 employees for presenting fake credentials. According to the director, the said employees will not be prosecuted.

In the information note published by the director, it is revealed that to authenticate the diplomas presented by some of IRAD’s employees, the institute sent requests for authentification to the Ministry of Secondary Education. On January 17, 2020, the ministry sent its answers and more than a month later, the employees suspected of holding fake diplomas are being fired.

Let’s note that this is not the first time fake credentials are being used for jobs in public institutions. In 2016, for instance, 232 agents of Elections Cameroon were found to be holding fake diplomas. In 2009, 50 employees of CNPS were also found to be holding fake diplomas.

Nevertheless, CNE, the national committee set up to review diplomas obtained abroad, indicates that this phenomenon is decreasing. During a recent meeting in Yaoundé, it revealed that compared with the number of authentic diplomas, the number of fake ones is really low. “From one session to the next, you can have 40 fake diplomas out of a set of 600,” it indicated.

Sylvain Andzongo