Cops With Fake Diplomas Face Sack in Macedonia

The deputy head of the Macedonian Police's urban crime fighting unit, "Alfa", Saso Milosevski, has been sacked after the authorities discovered his high-school diploma was fake.

"It is not true that my diploma is false. Why do you care about my diploma?" Milosevski briefly told BIRN.

However, the Macedonian Interior Ministry said that it had looked into the case and that he had been dismissed already.

"The department for internal oversight, criminal investigations and professional standards has determined that the Interior Ministry's employee, who is the subject of your inquiry, submitted an invalid high-school diploma" the ministry confirmed to BIRN.

It said the Skopje Primary Court had already annulled Milosvski's employment contract based on his use of a fake diploma.

While the Interior Ministry has confirmed uncovering at least four such cases of fake diplomas among the police this year, a BIRN investigation shows that no accurate official data exists on how many officers with fake diplomas were discovered in the past ten years.

Security expert Professor Vladimir Pivovarov told BIRN that using false diplomas to progress up the career ladder in work has become widespread in Macedonia, with damaging effects on society.

He said the most worrying thing is that many people have started to accept this as normal behaviour.

"For them, [the forgers] corruption is something normal. They acquired their diplomas through bribery and so have no problem taking bribes as well, because that's how their mindset works," Pivovarov said.

"If all the diplomas are checked thoroughly and professionally, we might find ourselves in an embarrassing situation where there might be more false diplomas than...