The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
Bernard James
3 October 2008
The National Examinations Council of Tanzania (Necta) was at pains yesterday to limit the damage from the sale of academic certificates scandal.
Necta executive director Joyce Ndalichako said the council was not aware that some of its staff were involved in an exposed syndicate engaged in the sale of "original" and fake academic certificates.
While admitting that the problem was alarming, Ms Ndalichako maintained that there was no conclusive evidence that Necta workers are behind the scam.
She could not, however, give satisfactory explanation as to how an original certificate with original serial numbers had been sold to an sneaked and sold to an undercover reporter with The Citizen.
She was reacting for the first time to the investigative report we carried last week which revealed that some Necta staff were colluding with brokers to sell the certificates to prospective clients, making tens of millions of shillings in the process.
A two-month investigation by our reporter established contacts with the brokers and some Necta officials. We also managed to get hold of an "original" Advanced Level Secondary Education (Form Six) certificate number ACS 0174631 from Necta at Sh300, 000.
A certificate delivered by a middleman in Dar es Salaam bears the names of the reporter and the subject grades he had wanted. The certificate shows that he sat for Form Six examinations at Jitegemee Secondary School in Dar es Salaam and scored Division Two of 10 points.
Ms Ndalichako told reporters that her officer had conducted a "thorough" investigative following the story, and that the findings largely corroborated the report. She, however, distanced her office from the scandal.
She said they had established that the certificate with the number ACS 017461 was issued to a candidate with the examination number S0496/0554, Ms Rehema Massawe, who sat for the Form Six examinations at Jitegemee Secondary School 2004.
Two years later, on March 17, 2006, Rehama's certificate together with those of 368 other candidate who wrote the examination at the school were sent to the Jitegemee headmaster accompanied by a letter number BMS. 496/VI/14 of March 17, 2006.
She said records available at Jitegemee Secondary School showed that Rehema had collected her certificate just two months ago on August 19, 2008. Interestingly, this was the time when The Citizen was carrying out its investigation into the fake certificates ring.
"No two certificates can have the same serial number. So if there is another certificate bearing the same number as that of Rehema, that means the certificate has been forged. We insist that the genuine certificate has already been collected by Rehema," Ms Ndalichako said.
The executive director yesterday also refuted reports that the office of the Director of Criminal Investigation (DCI) was investigating some Necta staff in connection with the scandal.
DCI Robert Manumba told The Citizen on Sunday that investigations had been launched to establish the culprits behind the scam. He said they were investigating possible between Necta workers and outsiders.
Ms Ndalichako's statement contradicted Mr Manumba's position that investigators had held meetings with Necta officials to see how police could help to pinpoint council officials involved in the syndicate.
"Reports that the DCI's office is investigating Necta are not true. I do not have any information that the DCI had held meetings with us. Let us make sure that all news reports are accurate and not intended to harm others," she said.
The Necta boss appealed to employers and heads of institutions, both public and private, to verify academic certificates of their employees and students, adding that this was one of the ways to fight the problem.
Statistics shows for the year 2007/08 conducted verification of academic certificates and result slip from various institutions and employers in which 3,636.
Out of those 605 which is 16.6 per cent were found to be fake and forced certificates.
In another development, Necta yesterday announced that it has changed its system of issuing result slips. Ms Ndalichako said all result slips would from now on be sent respective schools so as to avoid the possibility of issuing them to the wrong people.
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