VietNamNet Bridge - Local government officials have recently been found using counterfeit secondary and high school degrees.

Four commune officials using counterfeit diplomas has been a hot topic these days for people in Thoi Binh district in Ca Mau province. 

The officials had never finished high school. The diplomas they showed to local authorities were counterfeit degrees provided by a man in the locality who earned his living as a taxi motorbike driver. 

After failing the high school exams many times, the four officials in Tan Phu commune decided to ask for help from a taxi motorbike driver named Dung. 

Just a short time later, Dung gave the four officials diplomas with the signatures of Thai Van Long, who was then the director of the HCM City Education and Training Department.

With the counterfeit high school degrees, the four men received promotions again and again. They were even elected as members of the 2015-2020 commune’s Party Committee.

However, the counterfeit degrees were discovered and can no longer be in office. Those involved were: Pham Van Trieu, who was waiting for approval to become the commune’s chair, Dinh Van Thi, deputy secretary of the commune’s Party Committee, Lu Van Dung, an official of the sub-department for labor, war invalids and social affairs, and Nguyen Van Ky, a propaganda official.

In April 2015, the Phu Vang district Party Committee in Thua Thien-Hue province announced that Le Ngoc Kien, deputy chair of the Phu Thuong Commune People’s Committee, used a counterfeit diploma.

In 2013, Kien was discovered as using counterfeit diploma. The Phu Thuong Commune authorities then asked Kien to return to school and attend exams to get a diploma. However, the second degree Kien submitted to local authorities was once again a counterfeit one.

Kien admitted that he did not return to school to attend lessons as planned, but he decided to prepare for the exam himself. 

An old friend of his, whom he met again in April 2013, helped him get a counterfeit degree after he gave the friend VND3.2 million.

An educator said that counterfeit degrees can be made easily. More and more local officials have been found using counterfeit degrees recently in the provinces of Thanh Hoa, Dak Nong and Nghe An.

Dak Nong agencies have found that 10 officials in Quang Tan commune had bought counterfeit high school degrees. Many of them had held important positions in the local authority until their cheating was discovered.

The Nghe An provincial Department of Interior Affairs in 2014 discovered that 13 officials in seven communes of Thanh Chuong district had not finished general education.

Lao Dong