Senior Counsel Dana Seetahal is unsure whether there is any offence which can deal with falsifying information on someone’s resume. She said, however, that given the popularity of the act, maybe it was time to look at legislation to make it a punishable offence. Seetahal was responding to questions on whether or not former Airports Authority of T&T (AATT) deputy chairman Kurt Ajodha could be charged with falsifying information on his resume.
Ajodha’s academic qualifications were questioned by Diego Martin North/East MP Colm Imbert during debate in Parliament last month. Imbert had said Ajodha did not possess the qualifications stated on his CV. Following this, Ajodha resigned from his position with AATT. “If he had falsified a certificate, it would have been a fraud offence but I don’t know that there is any offence he can be charged with for putting incorrect information on his CV,” Seetahal said.
She said under industrial law if he had applied for a job and put false credentials and it had been found out then he could have been fired. Seetahal said considering the prevalence, it may be time to look at legislation to address giving false information on a resume. Attorney Israel Khan was also unsure whether putting false claims on one’s resume was a criminal offence. “A lot of people put false information on their resume but no one has been charged with anything,” Khan said.
University of the West Indies (UWI) Campus Registrar Richard Saunders said the university did not seek to prosecute people for saying that they attended the institution. “If an employer calls, we can validate the claim and that is as far as it goes,” he added. In February, Dr Hafizool Ali Mohammed, one of the commissioners appointed to sit on the commission of enquiry into the 1990 coup attempt, admitted his curriculum vitae contained inaccuracies after a report in the T&T Guardian.
In 2011, Reshmi Ramnarine resigned after her qualifications for the post of director of the Security Intelligence Agency came into question. Corporate communications officer of the AATT Hertia Foncette said the authority had no comment on the issue. Asked if the Transport Ministry would be taking action against Ajodha, Minister Chandresh Sharma said no breach had been committed.
“He was never an employee. As a result, he cannot be penalised as an employee,” Sharma said. As an example, Sharma said: “If you are a journalist and you also cook and you put on your resume that you are a cook, you cannot be penalised for that.”