The alleged anti-corruption scandal that’s currently unfolding in Ghana, concerning media personality Anne Sansa Daly, has cast a bright, international spotlight on a very common, crippling dilemma—the falsification of credentials both in professional and academic spheres.
This situation has escalated to the level where Dr. Nana Ayew Afriyie, a member of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) and Ranking Member of Parliament’s Health Committee, wrote a letter—formally calling on the Ghana Medical and Dental Council (GMDC) to investigate Ms. Daly’s medical credentials.
Mr. Afriyie’s move is in response to the revocation of her appointment to serve on the Board of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA).
“This request is being made in the public interest to ensure that individuals offering health-related services or advice to the Ghanaian public meet the appropriate legal and professional standards as established by the Council,” the letter emphasised.
According to Joy News, Dr. Afriyie has given the Council one week to respond, underscoring the urgency of the matter and the need for public trust in health information shared in the media.
Ms. Daly’s frequent appearances on health-related television programmes, notably GHOne TV— offering what seemed to be medical advice to viewers, raised eyebrows.
The incident snowballed quickly after President John Mahama recently took decisive action, ousting Ms. Daly from the Board of the NHIA.
The reason widely reported was her alleged lack of a valid medical licence to practice in Ghana. Dr. Afriyie, who is a medical doctor himself, is now demanding an official clarification on whether Ms. Daly is in fact legally registered and licensed to practice medicine in the country.
It is important to mention that these reports are currently allegations, and Ms. Daly has not yet publicly responded to these specific claims.
The Educational Landscape of Ghana and Africa
This incident calls for a critical review of the educational system, and the vetting process into offices of public servanthood not just in the West African nation, but in the pan-African space.
In Ghana, the 2021 Population and Housing Census provided an excellent resource for showing level of educational attainment. Even though nearly all Ghanaians can read and write to the standard of primary education, those who have completed their education at a tertiary level—including Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral degrees—are nonetheless relatively very few.
For instance, according to the most recent census data, only 24.4% of those 18 years and older that have ever attended school have reported receiving a Bachelor’s degree.
Generally across the wider African continent, finding accurate up-to-date statistics on college degrees is not easy due to diverse education systems and methods of data collection differ across countries.
However, overall trends suggest that while access to higher education is increasing consistently, the overall percentage of the population with a college degree continues to lag behind in many developed regions of the globe.
This disparity, along with the high value placed on academic success for social mobility in the majority of African societies, can, however, lead to the position where people might be forced to create their credentials.
A Global Phenomenon: When Credentials Crumble
While Ms. Daly is reportedly under fire for allegedly misrepresenting her work and educational credentials; she is not the first public figure to falsely embellish her scholarly credentials. And she probably won’t be the last.
In the United States, former President Joe Biden had previously found himself in hot water for exaggerating his academic records, including claims that he graduated in the top half of his law class at Syracuse University in New York and that he graduated with three degrees instead of two.
According to the Washington Post, Biden apologized for the claims in 1987, which was a rough learning experience on the durability of public memory as well as the importance of speaking the truth.
George Santos, former New York state representative, had claimed to earn degrees from Baruch College and New York University in New York City, but school officials told The New York Times they had no record of Santos graduating. The lawmaker later told the New York Post he hadn’t earned the degrees at all.
Similarly in the corporate world, Scott Thompson resigned as CEO at Yahoo in 2012 after it was revealed he had not earned a degree in computer science despite claiming he had on his resume.
David Tovar, a former vice president of communications at Walmart, was ousted in 2014 over a similar scam. This, after being with the company for nearly a decade for saying he had earned a degree he had not.
Academia too has witnessed its own share of such failures, with Mario Enzler, a business school dean at the University of St. Thomas in Texas, and Marilee Jones, a former dean of admissions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), both resigning after it came to light that they had misrepresented the degrees they had earned.
More recently, Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker was under intense public fire for making the false claim hegraduated from the University of Georgia when he never graduated from that institution, according to the Atlanta-Journal Constitution
The problem extends its tentacles to other continents, leaving no region untouched. In the United Kingdom, plastic surgeon Sotirios Foutsizoglou was suspended for claiming to have a Harvard PhD in plastic surgery and providing fake research studies, a horror story that rattled the medical field to its core.
MP Jonathan Reynolds was investigated for misrepresenting his lawyer qualifications. , and Chancellor Rachel Reeves meanwhile, was recently accused of inflating her experience and position at the Bank of England on LinkedIn.
Even though these kinds of instances may be less often covered at the top political levels across Europe, cases such as that of Liv Løberg in Norway, who was given 14 months imprisonment for forging nursing credentials in order to obtain a public health role, show the dangerous legal susceptibility of systems to these kinds of frauds.
In Asia, Jon Lee, CEO of Singaporean AI startup Vizzio Technologies, confessed to faking a doctorate certificate from Cambridge, resulting in massive reputational damage and a re-evaluation of his company’s client base. Patrick Imbardelli, former chief of Asia Pacific operations for Intercontinental Hotels Group, also resigned after it was discovered that he hadn’t graduated from schools he listed, though he enjoyed a successful 25-year career.
The Allure and Danger of Resume Deceit
The ability for anyone to lie outright on their resume varies greatly across different fields, but the pervasiveness of the digital age has definitely, without a doubt, has made it easier than ever to get caught. While some minor enrichments might sometimes slip through the cracks, blatant falsifications, especially concerning academic degrees or professional licenses, carry tremendous and usually unforeseen risks.
A majority of job seekers, perhaps already under the crushing weight of cut-throat markets or faced with what appear to be impossible job expectations, might be tempted to lie.
In fact, a 2022 survey by Intelligent.com discovered that 70% of all job applicants confessed to some sort of deception at least once on a resume, cover letter, or interview. This data is a jarring illustration of the pervasiveness of this ethical challenge, indicating that there may be a more systemic issue in how we view and seek qualifications.
But the psychological toll of maintaining such a deception can be huge, resulting in chronic stress and the constant fear of being caught.
And when they are caught, the penalty is often the most severe—from immediate job offers being rescinded, irreparable harm to one’s reputation to, for many regulated professions, the loss of professional licences and severe legal consequences.
Combined with the internet’s extensive databases and professional networks, these tools and resources are more readily available to verify information. It’s never been easier to call out a lie.
Employer Verification: The Necessary Safeguard
For government positions and in jobs requiring specific licenses or certifications, thorough background checks are not simply a formality but the standard practice.
These typically involve the utilisation of third-party verification agencies that directly call the educational institutions to verify degrees, attendance dates, and majors. Transcripts and official diplomas are the most common request, serving as real-world verifiable proof that can’t be faked.
In Ghana for instance, a regulatory framework is a statutory pre-requisite for professional bodies like the Ghana Medical and Dental Council (GMDC) to regulate the practice of medicine and dentistry. The Medical and Dental Council Act, 1972 (NRCD 91), and its amendments specifically empower the Council to enforce the minimum requirement that only qualified and licensed individuals practice medicine.
Additionally, in public service recruitment, the Public Services Commission has often been involved in screening candidates, emphasising adherence to ethical requirements and verified qualifications.
The reasoning behind authentication extends far beyond credentialing validation. It’s a critical barometer for the judging electorate to judge a candidate’s character and trustworthiness. For most organisations—especially for those operating in highly sensitive sectors like healthcare, finance, or the government—any level of trickery is an instant disqualification, regardless of the specialised skill or breadth of experience.
While smaller organisations that aren’t held to such stringent regulation might be able to be a bit nimbler, the trend overall, especially for major or critical roles, is toward more demanding and uncompromising verification processes. Trust is a delicate commodity, hard to establish and easily lost.
Consequences: The Price of Deception
Legally, practising a profession like medicine without the necessary license, as alleged in the Ann Sansa Daly case, can in fact actually be a criminal offence.
In Ghana, a person who is caught practising medicine without being professionally registered and licensed by the GMDC would be subject to fines or imprisonment, as well indicated under the Medical and Dental Council Act.
Likewise, forging documents or making false declarations to secure a public office can also lead to severe fraud or perjury charges.
Reputation wise, the harm is usually irreparable. High-profile personalities thrive on trust, and once that trust is breached by exposures of dishonesty, their credibility is lost in a flash.
This can lead to severe public humiliation, social isolation, and a dramatic, usually permanent, loss of influence. Political aspirations can be permanently ruined.
The stigma of dishonesty tends to linger, and future opportunities are harder to find and always under intense potential public letdown. Unfortunately, the repercussions of past misdeeds can continue to follow them for years.
Professionally, the consequences can vary from immediate dismissal, as was the abrupt end of David Tovar’s career at Walmart. For licensed professionals, the ultimate penalty is very often the suspension or revocation of their professional license, effectively ending their ability to practice in their chosen profession, as vividly demonstrated in the suspension of UK plastic surgeon Sotirios Foutsizoglou. White-collar workers, including Marilee Jones and Mario Enzler, lost their high-profile positions, their professional lives in higher education irrevocably altered by the discovery of their lies. The message is clear: the workplace demands authenticity.
The case of Ann Sansa Daly in Ghana, therefore, serves as a firm and timely reminder to individuals everywhere to uphold integrity as a non-negotiable principle.
It also underscores the critical role of institutions to implement and maintain robust verification mechanisms. In a world that is fast globalizing and transparent where information travels at the speed of light, the truth, sooner or later, finds a way of emerging. The erosion of trust, once established, is far more damaging and long-term than any alleged shortcut to achievement.
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DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.
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