MYANMAR
The Myanmar President’s Office has been urged to investigate the Union Civil Service Board (UCSB) over its ties with two phoney foreign universities.
The UCSB, a Government Agency responsible for recruiting and training Public Servants, worked with Hawaii-based Akamai University and an affiliate institution in Malaysia, EDS Business School, in providing courses and qualifications for high-ranking Government officials. An Akamai degree ceremony is pictured.
However, a Myanmar scholar studying at Oxford University in the United Kingdom pointed out that neither university was recognised by the Government of its home country and that Akamai University appeared to consist of two rented rooms in a building.
Accreditation aside, the scholar, Ko Nay Yan Oo also raised questions about a possible conflict of interest in the UCSB’s partnerships with the institutions.
Amid mounting public criticism, the UCSB ended its partnerships with the two institutions on 4 January and vowed to collaborate only with legitimate universities in the future.
However, no further details, nor explanation of how the connections were formed, have yet emerged.
Mr Oo said he had waited two months for a public explanation and when none was forthcoming had lodged the complaint with the President’s Office.
In the complaint, he called for an investigation into why the board chose to work with the institutions, whether background checks had been carried out into the institutions, if public money had been spent on them and whether there was a conflict of interest.
Former Minister of Information, U Ye Htut backed the complaint saying links with bogus universities harmed the Government’s Public Service reform plan launched by State Counsellor, Aung San Suu Kyi.
Naypyidaw, 21 February, 2019
