Actualités Régionales of Tuesday, 17 February 2015

Source: The Post Newspaper

Fake certificates flood Kumba City Council

Scandal hits the Kumba City Council following reports that most of the Council’s staff got employment using doubtful qualification certificates.

While investigations are ongoing, some Council workers are already shuttling between their offices and the chambers of lawyers in preparation for a legal dwell with the Government Delegate to the City Council, Victor Nkelle Ngoh.

According to the Chief of Cabinet at the Kumba City Council, Paul Epie, the Council is yet to make a final statement on the issue.

Epie told reporters, February 10, that the hierarchy of the Council is still investigating the matter, after which, the Government Delegate would react. Epie said, for now, workers have been summoned to submit their documents for examination.

The Post gathered that the Kumba City Council is working in collaboration with the Regional Delegation of Basic Education to authenticate the First School Leaving Certificates for those who were employed with them, while the Cameroon General Certificate of Education, GCE Board is said to be working on the files of workers with certificates purportedly issued by the Board.

Some high profile staff of the City Council are said to be part of the scandal. In this light, a delegation has been sent to Nigeria to ascertain the validity of the qualification of some workers who claim to have earned their certificates from Nigerian universities.

The issue is said to have been sparked by petitions written by some staff to Government and the National Anti-Corruption Commission, CONAC, accusing the hierarchy of the Kumba City Council of embezzlement and misappropriation.

The latest of such petitions is that of Epie Nnoko, a senior Council staff to the Minister of State Property on the supposed misappropriation of millions of FCFA accruing from the sale of Council property.