'Fake diploma users tried to bribe lawyers'
'Fake diploma users tried to bribe lawyers'
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan
At least five North Sumatra civil servants accused with 25 other
civil servants and legislators of allegedly using fake university
diplomas to advance their careers had attempted to bribe their
way out of facing charges, a lawyer said on Saturday.
Lawyer Eddy Warman said that one of the five, currently
holding a top job in the North Sumatra provincial administration,
had offered him a Rp 100-million bribe to get the case withdrawn.
Warman, speaking at a seminar on educational crime in North
Sumatra sponsored by the Medan Area University (UMA), said that
he flatly rejected the offer. He did not say when the incident
happened.
North Sumatra Governor T. Rizal Nurdin vowed last month to
dismiss civil servants found guilty of using fake university
diplomas.
"If there are civil servants using bogus diplomas, we will
remove them because it is a criminal act," he told The Jakarta
Post in Medan, the provincial capital, on May 15.
It is not unusual for civil servants to further their studies
after office hours but some buy their university diplomas.
Rizal said his administration was dealing with a number of
local officials accused of using counterfeit diplomas to get
higher positions.
As part of efforts to find those involved in the crime, the
governor ordered a full-swing probe into civil servants who had
allegedly used their academic documents to seek promotion.
Local police had arrested at least 12 people suspected of
belonging to a syndicate producing counterfeit diplomas.
Two of the suspects were lecturers from the UMA and Nomensen
University, both based in Medan.
Warman said among the 30 suspected holders of bogus degrees he
reported to the police were senior officials at the provincial
and city administrations and legislators.
"One of them has even become head of a district in a certain
regency," he said.
Warman added that based on the result of his investigation,
the number of those using counterfeit UMA diplomas was actually
more than the 30.
The lawyer said he promised to submit a longer list of
suspects to the police soon.
Addressing the same seminar on Saturday, North Sumatra Police
detective chief Sr. Comr. Iskandar Hasan said his office was
processing the cases of 30 fake diploma users.
He said the dossiers of the 12 suspects charged with
involvement in the syndicate had been handed over to the local
prosecutor's office.
"By late June, the trial for the case will start," Iskandar
said.
He added that he suspected the syndicate to have produced fake
diplomas for people from North Sumatra, Aceh, Riau and
Kalimantan.
An unnamed member of the Aceh Singkil district legislative
council was among those suspected to have bought the bogus
diplomas.