27 Dow University employees found with fake degrees

KARACHI:

Thousands of employees, millions in salaries and a verification exercise that remains incomplete - an audit of Dow University of Health Sciences has exposed serious gaps in the scrutiny of academic credentials, with 27 employees found to have fake degrees.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Sindh Assembly on Tuesday ordered the recovery of all salaries paid to the employees, who have since been dismissed, and sought reports from all public universities on the verification of degrees held by their faculty and staff.

The scale of the problem extends beyond the 27 cases. Of the university's 5,350 employees, only 1,945 had undergone degree verification, leaving more than 3,400 cases pending, the committee was told during a meeting chaired by Nisar Khuhro.

The PAC was reviewing audit paras relating to the university for 2024 and 2025 when the issue came to light. The audit had questioned the administration's failure to verify employees' degrees and its lack of a satisfactory response to the matter.

Dow University Director Finance Zainul Abideen Shah told the committee that the institution had outsourced the verification process to HRSG under a contract worth Rs7.36 million. Of the degrees verified so far, 27 were found to be fake, he said.

The employees identified in the audit held positions ranging from receptionists and clerical staff to computer operators, administrative officers, billing personnel, technicians and nursing staff. Their allegedly fake qualifications included BCom, BA, BSc and MCom degrees, matriculation certificates, nursing diplomas and a master's degree in computer science.

Shah said all 27 employees whose degrees were found to be fake had been dismissed from service. Vice Chancellor Dr Nazli Hussain told the committee that more than 70 per cent of the degrees held by academic doctors had been verified, while the remaining cases were still being processed.

Khuhro directed the university to recover the entire amount paid in salaries to the employees found to have secured employment on the basis of fake degrees. The committee also sought reports from all public universities in Sindh on the verification of academic and non-academic staff credentials.

The committee also examined Dow University's finances, with Khuhro asking about its annual budget and revenue generation.

Shah told the PAC that the university had an annual budget of Rs26 billion and generated around Rs25 billion a year through academic services, radiology, laboratory services and other sources. Student fees accounted for an additional Rs4.5 billion in annual income, he said.

Hussain told the committee that the university offered more than 300 open-merit seats. Annual fees stood at Rs500,000 for self-finance students and Rs60,000 for those admitted on open merit. International students paid between $10,000 and $18,000 annually, in line with the fee structure prescribed by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council, she said.