Opinion

The perils of phony degrees

October 31, 2018
The perils of phony degrees

Melfi Al-Rasheedi

Okaz

How will a rational person trust a doctor holding a fake certificate to carry out a surgical operation? How will the municipality trust an engineer with a phony degree to supervise an important project?

NO one can deny the extent of corruption and the economic, security and social threats when discussing the case of phony degrees issued from fake universities.

The sale of fake certificates has become a profitable business. An article published in 2008, under the title «The economics of phony degrees», estimated the profits generated from the sale of fake certificates at more than a billion dollar annually. It is most likely that this number has increased with the high reach of social media and with the evolution of innovative cheating methods in marketing fake universities and their degrees.

The spread of fake certificates is the result of many reasons, the most important of them the money generated by this business and the absence of tough laws to combat it. The terrible fact of fake certificate lies in that it has become an organized crime. It is controlled by the black market mafia and is part of the hidden economy. It is similar to dealing with fake currencies. Have anyone heard of a country that has not issued laws and regulations to fight the spread of illegal money or fake currencies? Have anyone heard of a country that has not made legislation against activities classified under organized crime?

One of the most important standards in the fight against fake certificates is the strength of legislation — not its existence — to deal with this negative phenomenon. The absence of legislation will raise the question of awareness and intellectual maturity that govern any organization or country. Those who are lenient toward dealing with the danger of fake certificates or not declaring it as a crime is actually exposing intellectual corruption, which is very dangerous.

The Norwegian experience in combating fake certificates is a unique one, not because it succeeded but because of the reason that forced the country to come with very strict laws in this regard. After the terrorist attacks of July 22, 2011, which killed at least 77 people, most of them teenagers, the Norwegian perpetrator confessed that he financed his terror operation selling fake certificates on the Internet. He later laundered about a million dollar, which was his income from the sale of fake certificates, to buy chemical components and expensive technology to make a fertilizer bomb and execute his terror plan.

This is not an isolated case. There are many stories of doctors, engineers, educational and legal consultants who used fake certificates to commit terrible violations and inflict great damage on individuals, organizations and countries.

Pakistan, for example, used to be a playing ground for conning networks and factories for fake certificates. The contracts of more than 70 people working at Karachi seaport were terminated because they obtained fake certificates, which facilitated their employment at the port and their subsequent activities.

The terror of using fake certificates financing terrorism or any illegal activity that endangered the security of the country led to intensifying government procedures and coming up with laws that criminalized this act.

In Belgium, Holland and some states in America, for example, the PhD title is legally protected. The misuse of this title will hold the person accountable before the law. The developed world, which we are looking forward to be part of, is regularly updating their laws and improve them to form a legal framework to combat fake certificates knowing for a fact that they pose a danger to national security, their people and the country.

The countries that are negligent to criminalize the trade of fake certificates need a disaster to take place before they realize its danger. There are people who will argue that only the rich could afford to buy fake certificates and they use them to show off or to hold on to an unimportant job. But the reality is no one would trust a person holding a fake certificate, no matter what his excuse is. These people are forgers.

How will a rational person trust a doctor holding a fake certificate to carry out a surgical operation? How will the municipality trust an engineer with a phony degree to supervise an important project? How will a person trust a lawyer with a fake certificate to represent him?

The efforts made at individual levels to expose people holding fake certificates through social media is a bold initiative. This social media campaign against fake certificates raised some awareness on the dangers of this phenomenon. It exposed many names in the intellectual, legal and educational circles. However, in reality the related authorities deliberately ignored to enact laws to criminalize the act. Such certificates, if they keep spreading, will grow to a very dangerous level where it will be difficult to contain.

This will raise the question on the role of the system of authenticating degrees, which was approved by the Shoura Council six years ago, to end the problem of fake certificates once and for all. This system recommended to hold accountable anyone who has benefited through a fake certificate at jobs.

Nonetheless, the sad thing is we continue to see the number of people holding fake certificates on the rise.


October 31, 2018
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