NTA audit in the Human Resources Management Directorate of a Ministry, with the purpose of examining the actions (acts of omission) of the HR, concerning the verification of the qualification authenticity of an employee.
On the basis of a document from the Directorate of Education, sent to a Ministry and communicated to the NTA, concerning a reply to the Ministry concerning the non-genuine degree of an employee of the Ministry, the NTA carried out an audit at the Human Resources Management Directorate of the Ministry, with the aim of examining the actions (acts of omission) of the Directorate of Human Resources Management concerning the verification of the authenticity of the degree of the employee concerned.
The audit revealed that:
- The head of the audited General Directorate took the actions required by the provisions when he/she was informed of the non-authenticity of the employee’s educational qualification.
Specifically:
- Disciplinary referral of the employee to the Minister, but with a delay of more than two (2) months from the date of the summons to apologise [(while the law sets a time limit of two (2) months)]
- Informed, as required, the Athens Prosecutor's Office for the criminal evaluation of the case and the attribution of any responsibility
- In the context of the provisions of the relevant circulars and from 2014 (the year of application of article 28 of Law 4305) until today (2023), the institution, according to the data, did not carry out an audit to confirm the authenticity of employee’s qualification, nor in the context of his/her transfer.
Furthermore, in the midst of the audit, while the official was called to account and the disciplinary proceedings were pending, he submitted an application for retirement, which was rightly not accepted by the service, for reasons relating to the verification of documents’ authenticity submitted for his classification in a vacant post as a private employee for an indefinite period.
The report was forwarded to the Athens Public Prosecutor's Office for criminal evaluation and correlation with the document of the competent General Directorate of the Ministry to the above-mentioned Public Prosecutor's Office.
No disciplinary responsibility for the employee was sought, since the employee had already been disciplined for the same disciplinary offense and, under the current provisions, a second prosecution for the same disciplinary offense is not allowed.
Through the report, recommendations were addressed to the Head of the Ministry’s General Directorate, to ensure that:
- To examine the issue of the search for salaries paid to the employee, if his/her transfer is found to be illegal (280/2016 Legal Council of the State).
- To examine whether, apart from the case examined in the current audit, there are cases of other officials for whom no audit has been carried out on the authenticity of qualifications, certificates, etc. in their personal files, with the ΝΤΑ’s immediate notification.
- To initiate immediately the procedure of preliminary investigation, informing the ΝΤΑ as to its results, regarding the reasons why the competent services of the institution did not carry out a verification audit on the employee's degree in the years 2013-2014 until the audit of 2023, taking, where appropriate, the necessary actions, if there are any disciplinary responsibilities that have not been violated.
- To keep the ΝΤΑ's online platform updated: the system for monitoring the process of checking forged documents/certificates/titles https://rns.aead.gr/titloi/login.asp
It is noted that:
According to Article 28 of the Greek Law 4305/2014 (A΄237), the services are obliged to check the legitimacy of all diplomas, certificates, and other elements of the personal register of all their employees.
Based on the circulars F.34/45/2843/2014 and F.34.1/86/record number 31792/8.12.2014 of the former Ministry of Administrative Reform, the Administrative Departments of the services and bodies of the Greek public sector are obliged to register the information on the relevant authenticity audits of their employees’ qualifications in the electronic platform/application https://rns.aead.gr/titloi/login.asp
Corresponding NTA audits continue to be carried out in public services and Local Authorities (First Level = Municipalities and Second Level = Regions).