Ntsebeng Motsoeli
MASERU — Police are investigating National University of Lesotho (NUL) officials for allegedly tampering with students’ results.
Under investigation are allegations that some officials are being bribed by students to change grades.
For instance, it is alleged a student with a “C” would pay a bribe for his grade to be changed to an “A”.
The Sunday Express can reveal that the investigation into the potentially damaging allegations started two weeks ago following a report by the university management.
And on Wednesday police officers visited the university to interview some senior officials.
Details of how widespread the scandal is and who is being targeted by the investigation are still hazy.
NUL spokesperson, Phomolo Lebotsa, confirmed the investigation on Friday.
Lebotsa however refused to reveal the details of the investigation saying findings will “be made public once the investigations are over”.
“The investigations are going on but the details cannot be revealed now since the matter is in the hands of the police. All details will be announced in due course,” he said.
Pro-vice chancellor Professor Mafa Sejanamane, who is in charge of the academic programme, also confirmed that the police were at the university on Wednesday.
“We have reported allegations of the fraudulent manipulation of students’ records but that is all I can say at the moment,” Sejanamane said.
When asked for specific details, Sejanamane said he would prefer that the police comment on the matter.
“You would rather speak to the police because they are the ones conducting the investigation. I am not privy to their progress so far,” he said.
Sources say the matter came to light when heads of department and deans at the troubled university noticed discrepancies between the results on some students’ exam scripts and those presented to the Senate.
“They found that a student’s script would have a “C” but when its gets to the senate for moderation it would have an “A”,” said a source who is privy to the investigation but refused to be named.
He said the deans also noticed the results they would have signed from the lecturers were not the same as the ones that then appeared on the students’ transcripts.
“There are strong indications that someone has been tampering with the results for a very long time. We suspect this could have been going on for the past two years,” he said.
“We suspect that some students have been paying officials to tinker with their results. If this is found to be the case the damage to NUL’s reputation will be massive.”
“It will bring into question the authenticity of the results and the integrity of the graduates we are producing,” he added.
Meanwhile, the university management has been forced to postpone supplementary examinations after it emerged that some students had not been informed on time.
By Friday night some departments had not managed to produce timetables for their supplementary examinations.
Students told the Sunday Express that the situation was chaotic.
Some said they had come to collect their results on Monday, only to be told that they were going to write their supplementary tests within two days.
“It’s just a mess. Imagine if you are on holiday outside the country and then you hear that you have to write a supplementary examination within five days,” said one irate student from the social science department.
NUL, the country’s only public university, is currently going through a rough time.
It finances are in disarray, lecturers are disgruntled and the restructuring programme it had hoped would sort out the mess is in limbo.