Desperate times call for desperate measures – and in a tough employment market, for some candidates that means forging qualifications and faking experience. A company in New Delhi however took this to a new level, setting up a fake IT firm with a fake HR department which gave fake information about jobseekers’ work experience. It all came to light when managers of an IT company in New Delhi were puzzled as they sifted through a pile of CVs and as many as 30 job seekers claimed to have worked previously for the same employer, according to a Sapa report. The “employer” turned out to be an owner of a dingy oneroom mobile repair shop who was pretending to be an HR manager of a fake IT firm. In return for money, he answered verification calls and described how the candidates had worked for him previously doing data entry. Candidates ‘faking it’ is not unusual in the local market according to several personnel agencies contacted by FTW “Verification checks work well in South Africa and in this economic climate our clients routinely request academic, criminal and credit checks which certainly clear out many of the candidates making fraudulent claims,” Dr Lynn Ribton-Turner of Ribton Turner Recruitment told FTW. “RTR knows this market very well and is easily able to request verbal references from reliable sources in our niche market.” Lee Botti & Associates also offers credit and criminal checks to its clients on all placements, director Kim Botti told FTW. “Additional checks are done on request and in some instances we have been requested to check the qualifications too, particularly with companies that have a minimum matric requirement, or if they are specifically looking at degreed candidates.” But in a skills-hungry market this is not the norm, says Botti. “The focus has been predominantly on past work experience and the references are important.” It certainly appears that quick qualifications are fairly easy to come by – at a price. According to Botti, in one of the coastal branches a candidate admitted to arriving late for an interview because he had been to one of the universities where his friend had paid R3 000 to get him a ‘degree’. “He said it was done through the admin department where they filled in the register book with fictitious dates, and then issued him with a fake certificate!” A similar scenario played out when the HR manager of a particular company picked up that the matric certificate produced by a staff member was a fake. “The candidate admitted to having paid R700 to get a fake one done.” Ribton-Turner describes recruitment agents as ‘detectives’. “Our developed instincts will quickly identify a curriculum vitae with contradictions or exaggerations.” The problem is clearly a global one, based on a survey by Indian screening firm AuthBridge, which has screened millions of candidates. They maintain that nearly one in five fudged some information on their CVs in 2012-13 and as many as 51% submitted fake education documents. INSERT & CAPTION Recruitment agents are ‘detectives’. Our developed instincts will quickly identify a CV with contradictions or exaggerations. – Dr Lynn Ribton-Turner
