To combat forgery: Gov’t launches digital platform to authenticate certificates, diplomas of state workers.

It was unveiled at a meeting co-chaired by the Minister of State, Minister of Higher Education, Prof Jacques Fame Ndongo, and his peer of Public Service and Administrative Reform, Joseph Le.

The initiative comes amidst a rise in the use of fake certificates by individuals seeking government recruitments. The user-friendly platform, has thus been described a panacea to the phenomenon.

Speaking during the launching, Minister Fame Ndongo saluted the tireless efforts of the officials of the two ministries concerned in ensuring the realisation of the project.

“On April 26, 2023, we co-chaired a meeting which culminated with our two ministries working together through our collaborators to whom we are all sincerely grateful,” he recalled. 

The member of government explained after the meeting of last year, he co-signed on May 8 this year, a circular with Minister Joseph Le to launch the operation of which final product was being presented in Yaounde Tuesday.

“The central services of the two ministries have already worked on the operation and from today, the platform will be operational and running, enabling MINFOPRA to verify the authenticity of diplomas obtained through national examinations, that is BTS and HND. It also includes diplomas already issued by MINESUP. It is intended that this platform will be possibly extended to each university institution,” he disclosed during the launch of the platform.

He also said the heads of public institutions will have to designate focal points, insisting that: “I expect full and sincere collaboration from them”.

He was blunt that: “Let me remind you that verifying authenticity is just a matter of having the information without operators replacing those who have the power to authenticate them in university institutions”.

“As my friend and colleague, the Minister of Public Service and Administrative Reform has said, it is my duty to point out that this is a matter of categorical urgency for us to get this platform up and running, the aim being to improve the satisfaction of users and staff of the Cameroonian public service,” he added.

Enter public service minister

Meanwhile, in an exchange with newsmen following the launching of the platform, the Minister of Public service and Administrative Reform, Joseph Le, described the move as being “very important” and “helpful” to his ministry.

He confessed that: “We couldn’t even imagine this but there was always hope”.

Minister Joseph Le said: “The Minister of State, Minister of Higher Education dedicated himself to work with us in order to solve this big problem. The problem has always been that of authenticating diplomas and certificates”.

He was categorical that: “We can never integrate or recruit a young man who comes with a diploma which is fake. As you know, there are many fake documents that come to our ministry”.

He said the process of verification of diplomas used to take a very long period because “we had to write to institutions or administrations that are supposed to have delivered those diplomas”.

He said sometimes, the ministry “had to wait for six months, one year, and even three years”.

Minister Joseph Le was happy that with the new platform, “we will just need to make a click in our system, and have the information we need”.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3248 of Thursday October 03, 2024