Madam –
A staggering 35.78% of all applicants with a criminal record are repeat offenders, with 3.01% having committed 10 or more offences, whilst fraud has increased by 3% in the past year.
These are very telling facts and are very disturbing considering that only 50% of companies undertake criminal checks on their employment candidates.
Given the fact that 20% of people checked have negative credit information against them, 6% had criminal records and 7% of matric certificates were invalid, together with 25% of directorship details checked being invalid, 8% of both driver’s licenses and PDP licenses being invalid as well as 24% of international qualifications being falsified, it is easy to imagine how many other misrepresentations of information are slipping through the employment gaps.
Identity verification is another hot potato, with at least 10% of documents being unverifiable. Reasons range from the ID number never being issued, through to the number not matching the name or surname, the holder being deceased, the ID not yet being verified and the ID holder having emigrated.
Illegal immigrants have been known to purchase falsified ID books to secure employment. However, when they are fingerprinted, AFIS (Automated Fingerprint Identification System) cannot match the ID holder to the identity number.
Falsification of local qualifications is high at up to 15% for matric certificates, 8% for trade certificates. At least 3% of tertiary qualifications and 7% of professional association memberships are also falsified.
Marina Smal
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