Fake Police Documents: Explaining their misdemeanor

In the mad rush to get documents signed on time for recruitment examinations, some candidates fall foul of the law.

It is ‘concours’ or recruitment examination time. Since December 2014, thousands of young men and women across the country have been thronging business centres and public offices to first register online, and then get their papers signed for various police recruitment examinations.

In the desperation to secure a place among the 4,700 positions available this year, some of the over 70,000 candidates are induced into error by so-called middlemen or go-betweens who loiter at entrances to public offices, offering their services to visitors. On the other hand, some candidates, knowing fully well that they are not qualified, do not hesitate to forge their papers in order to apply.

Easy Way Out

Some people are by nature lazy or impatient. Either they do not have the will power to undertake a venture right to the end by following due process, or they simply opt for the easy way out. Among the 350 cases of fake official stamps, medical certificates and certificates of non-conviction recently detected by the police in Yaounde, a good number is understandably attributable to this group. They unknowingly got their papers signed by fraudsters or deliberately submitted forged ones. As a result, five police recruitment candidates are today languishing in the Kondengui Maximum Security Prison in Yaounde while awaiting trial on expected charges of helping and abetting fraud.

Overcrowding In Public Offices

The number of people waiting to get their papers endorsed by officials for the police recruitment exams is quite high. According to the Director of Human Resources at Police Headquarters in Yaounde, a total of 70,021 people had pre-registered online for the 4,700 positions as at January 24, 2015. As the deadline for submitting hard copy documentation for the exams elapses this week, overcrowding at public offices by candidates to get their particulars endorsed will even become more serious. It is in such last-minute rush that candidates need to be more wary of those proposing to help them out. Demonstrating the reflexes of a detective at this time might just save many candidates from serving needless time in jail.

Centralisation Of Signing Authority

The situation is much worse when it comes to a document like the Attestation of Presentation of Original of Certificate, which is only signed by a Senior Divisional Officer or Regional Governor. Given that the cities of Yaounde and Douala are home to millions of inhabitants, many of whom are also jobless, the number of police exam candidates thronging offices of Senior Divisional Officers or Governors in Douala and Yaounde these days for the signing of the paper is probably about 50 per cent of the total in the country. In the face of such a situation, only the spiritually strong at heart or morally upright would resist the temptation to take any dangerous short cuts.