28 federal managers found to have fake college degrees

The Charlotte Observer ^ | May 12, 2004 | staff

[TaxRelief]

At least 28 senior-level federal employees in eight agencies have bogus college degrees, including three managers at the office that oversees nuclear weapons safety, congressional investigators have found.The problem is likely even bigger, mainly because the government has no uniform way to check whether employees' alma maters are diploma mills that require little, if any, academic work, the General Accounting Office reported. The names of the 28 senior-level workers have been forwarded to the offices of the inspectors general in their agencies for review. -- ASSOCIATED PRESS

[snopercod]

Back in the 80's, I would sometimes get hired via a 10 minute telephone interview. Once I asked the employer, "Don't you want to see my resume?" He told me, "If you can't do the job, we'll fire you."

Fair enough!

Later in life, I learned that when working for the government, they only cared about your "credentials", not your knowledge or ability. That was so nobody could blame them for hiring you.

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

It appears the point of the article is fake diplomas. But then again, I didn't read the entire article.

Rush Limbaugh never went to college; and yet, he has more money than God to site one example.

[Diverdogz]

Karl Rove doesn't have a degree, or at least didn't when he first became Bush's political advisor. (Probably has a few honorary degrees by now). Yet he has a sharper mind and higher intellect than the overwhelming majority of college graduates. A degree doesn't mean too, too much.

However, I know a couple of folks working for large companies who hold decent jobs, managing people in support departments and all...but they are bitter because some promotion opportunites aren't available to them. A degree is required for higher level jobs even though they both know they are are up to the task. There are too many other people who are also qualified - so if for no other reason than to be able to "check the box", the degree does make a difference.

[lowbridge]

28 federal managers found to have fake college degrees

Idiots. Did it ever occur to them to try to get a real one like I did....

....through email?

[Diogenesis]

It doesnt matter. There will be NO accountability.

They should be fired.

[muawiyah]

The way the Postal Service handled this years ago was to just abolish all of the requirements for degrees in all of it's jobs (except the National Medical Director ~ he had to be a licensed physician).

Notice the gal over in Homeland Security ~ she didn't have any degrees, but claimed something like 3 of them. Earlier she was the "supervisor" with the White House contractors in charge of Bill Clinton's e-mail files. She and one of her gumbahs were called before Congress to testify.

As far as I can tell reading the record over and over, it looks like she and her friend misrepresented everything ("they lied").

I'm not sure how she got a regular civil service job, but she had been a contractor at the WH. Presumably Billzo and his buddies put her in a Schedule C job, and then she converted that into a regular job with the new administration in January 2001.

Her lead gumbah found a job at USPS. Although he was classified as a regular employee at the Eagan Minnesota Postal Data Center, he passed himself off as the Eastern Area director of IT (Information Technology) in Pittsburgh.

I would imagine he didn't have any degrees, but he didn't need any, and with the friends he had, his position with USPS is secure as long as Bob Otto is his boss. Bob, of course, has all of his training at the US Department of Agriculture Graduate School ~ might check out how they are accredited at http://www.grad.usda.gov/

One presumes this sort of nonsense is OK with Mr. Casey, who was appointed to the USPS Board of Governors by President Bush with the highest recommendation by various key Republicans in Congress. It's not likely you will ever see Casey complain about any of this.

[CharacterCounts]

The issue isn't whether a degree makes a person a better employee, it's whether a person who obtains the position fraudulently is a desirable employee.

It would be my contention that he or she is not.

[ApplegateRanch]

"Many competent people lack college degrees and many people who have them, I wouldn't hire to shine my shoes."

"It is the lie that is the issue here"

I agree with BOTH of you. I also find that in too many cases the degree requirement is nothing more than a culling device to cut the number of applicants for far too many positions, for which a degree is irrelevant or unnecessary.

It is also a leading cause of dilution of a 'hard' degree's value, as well as the proliferation of bastardized, watered-down, and hyphenated "degrees".

[Rebelbase]

If these 28 managers get the boot they can always become Ordained Minsters.

[Rebelbase]

ooopps..Ministers!

[Diogenesis]

"It more than just resume fraud.
You've got to be able to destroy evidence.
Now that WE have a copy of Gorelick's book "Destruction of Evidence"
we will NEVER NEVER be fired again."

[TaxRelief]

The issue is fraud, not ability.

[jackbill]

Only 28 out of thousands?

We're talking "senior level" here. They should be fired and prosecuted for fraud.

God knows how many lower level bureaucrats are sporting these fictitious degrees.

[Paulus Invictus]

This also means, of course, that these idiots are also liars. Would they also be mostly RATs? Inquiring minds want to know...

[Stentor]

Next question...how are they performing?

I am sure that they are covering their asses and suckin down perks with great distinction.

[Paulus Invictus]

We purposely hired eight newly graduated, top-of-class MBA's just to get "their expertise." Two years later all were gone (fired) except one and he turned out to be average for business smarts and productivity. The old guys with years of experience and BA or BS degrees did much better than the "educated MBAs". Go figure!

[Kackikat]

I want names too, it is an insult to those of us who attended classes for 4 or 5 yrs, did tons of work with which we disagreed, and put up with longwinded Dem/Lib professors with an agenda...just to get a piece of paper that would let us do what we were qualified to do in the first place....YES, I want names, fraud charges, reimbursement of salaries and I want to know how they have impacted the job they took from someone who actually did the work to get there. Have they made critical mistakes because of a lack of expertise, thereby influencing important government decisions that we would object to? Were they appointed by Clinton or someone else based on that phony degree?

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

Ref post #23.

Thank you for your interesting and informative comments. I didn't realize Mr. Rove did not have a degree. I had never given it a thought. I am guilty of "presuming."

[Unknowing]

I think that many Baby Boomers lied on their resumes and/or defaulted on their student loans.

Grain of Salt Warning: I got this from seeing one or two episodes of "Mad About You." Paul Reiser said, "just lie on your resume," and the audience laughed. Helen Hunt said, "I went to Yale, but skipped out on my student loans." Again, the audience laughed.

They probably would not have laughed if, for example, Reiser said, "commit fraud at your workplace," and Hunt said, "steal expensive things from your school."