Government’s plan to draft in a policy to target qualification fraud is expected to reap positive results for South Africa, and university institutions in particular.
This is according to Rudi Kruger general manager of Governance, Risk & Compliance at LexisNexis South Africa.
The South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) is set to create a national qualification fraud database to ‘name and shame’ guilty parties.
“The foreseeable benefits of this proposed policy are immeasurable, as responsibility for public money and service delivery will be placed in the hands of people who are actually trained and experienced as opposed to individuals who were dishonest in their career progression,” Kruger said.
In addition, the policy will ensure that South African tertiary institutions are not robbed of the reverence many of them have earned for decades, he said.
One of the main benefits would be that CV verification will become standardised, ensuring accuracy and no room for deviation, in both the public and private sectors.
LexisNexis says that qualification fraud is the most prevalent among job seekers compared with any other kind of misrepresentation found on CVs.
This is in the form of:
- Non-existent matric certificates;
- Inflated education;
- Unfinished degrees;
- Fake degree certificates
“Employers are also confronting fake employment certificates, incorrect past roles and responsibilities, inflated job titles, undisclosed criminal records and inflated salaries, although many of them are not aware of the these transgressions,” Kruger said.