Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Macedonia Challenges Fake Diplomas

Forged university diplomas from neighbouring Bulgaria are the most popular among Macedonians who want to get a prestigious job without proper qualifications.

According to Macedonia’s Education Ministry, fake diplomas from Albanian institutions are in second place.

A total of 122 forged degree certificates have been detected in the last five years, the ministry’s figures show.

Of them, 66 are from Bulgarian universities, 54 from Albania and just two from Serbia.

The latest scandal relating to forged diplomas erupted on Thursday when police expressed suspicions about the qualifications of a top official in the Ministry of Defence.

After checking with Interpol, the police said that State Secretary Liljana Steriovska’s diploma from the University of Belgrade was a forgery.

Steriovska denied the allegation, and her party leader, Tito Petkovski from the New Social Democrats, said the claim was politically-motivated.

No fake diplomas from Macedonia’s own universities have been discovered so far.

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