CAMEROON: Fraudulent diplomas exposed

The commission in Cameroon responsible for assessing higher education qualifications issued abroad has exposed more than 300 cases of fraudulent diplomas, reported QuotidienMutations.info of Yaoundé.

A total of 308 diplomas out of 911 presented to the commission for establishing equivalence turned out to be false, said the paper. Most of these forged qualifications - 291 of the 308 - purported to be for the Chad baccalauréat.

Higher Education Minister Jacques Fame Ndongo had signed and published the list of the diplomas declared fraudulent by the assessment commission, said QuotidienMutations.

An official at the Ministry of Higher Education's department of comparative university systems and academic equivalence told the paper the number was "quite enormous and without precedent" in the ministry's records.

QuotidienMutations said fraudulent qualifications undermined a large part of Cameroon society, and virtually all public services were affected.

It quoted a ministry representative who said because of the increasing number of bogus qualifications circulating throughout the country's public services, the prime minister had instructed the public and private sectors to require from job applicants an official document of equivalence of diplomas obtained from abroad.