A 36-year-old former dancer at the Ministry of Tourism and Arts has been arrested by Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) for faking his Grade 12 certificate and defrauding government of over K120, 000.
Oozing with the skills of twisting and turning his waist from left to right at the sound of music, the former dancer capitalized on an opportunity to be employed in the government.
Rasford Tembo, of Lusaka’s PHI was arrested and charged with four offences.
These offences include forgery and uttering false documents, obtaining pecuniary advantage through false pretenses, attempting to obtain employment by false pretences and possession of property suspected of being proceeds of crime.
Particulars of the matter are that Tembo working with others on dates between December 23, 2019 and August 31 this year 2022 forged an Examinations Council of Zambia (ECZ) 12 Certificate which he uttered at the Ministry of Tourism and Arts to gain employment and obtained to gain financial advantage by deception in the form of salaries and allowances amounting to K121, 024.75.
Tembo also obtained a recommendation letter from the Ministry of Tourism and Arts which he later submitted to the Ministry of Information and Media seeking employment on the pretext that he had a full grade 12 certificate and other qualifications in Journalism which was not factual.
DEC public relations officer Hussein Khan said in a statement that the suspect also possessed a Toyota Mark X reasonably suspected to be proceeds of crime.
Khan added that the suspect was released on bond and will appear in court soon.
Source: Kalemba
