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Check, mate

Background screening is an effective tool for preventing fraudulent candidates from securing sensitive positions.

Background screening is by far the most efficient and cost effective way to ensure that an employee has the qualifications that he or she lays claim to and also to verify that the CV they present at the time of their interview is accurate and presents a clear picture of who the aspirant worker really is.

The consequences of not subjecting prospective employees to background screening can be both far reaching and expensive to the company in terms of lost man-hours because of the employee’s lack of ability to produce the goods and costly to get rid of the worker in terms of legal fees and severance pay.

Qualifications

In 2008 Managed Integrity Evaluation (MIE, formerly Kroll) received a request to do a post employment verification check. The candidate was the legal advisor for a state owned organisation, having been employed three years previously. The employer had started picking up some irregularities, and was becoming concerned about the employee’s qualification claims.

MIE did the background check and found that the candidate only had a matric, and not the law qualification that was claimed. Further investigation found that the candidate’s father was a judge, and the candidate had learnt the law jargon from him.

The candidate was immediately dismissed, and a fraud case was opened. As it stands, the candidate was employed as part of a team of legal advisors, which is why the candidate managed to fly under the radar for so long, and not have anyone notice that there was a serious problem. Luckily no irreparable damage was done.

Criminal record

When a full background screening is done, checks for criminal records form part of the process. Just how important a criminal record check can be is illustrated by the following instance.

An international placement agency for teachers contacted MIE in 2007 with a background check request for a teacher that they had recently placed in a teaching position in Australia. The teacher was portraying very peculiar behaviour when in the classroom. On conclusion of the background checks, MIE found that the teacher had a criminal record for paedophilia.

The teacher had been arrested and sentenced to time in jail, and had only recently been released. The clearance certificate that the teacher presented to authorities turned out to be a forgery, which is why he managed to gain entrance into Australia, and secure a job placement.

The agency very quickly alerted authorities, and after investigation the teacher was deported. It would seem that in this case the background check was done just in time.

A high probability existed that he may have returned to his old ways and molested children at the school where he was placed in Australia.

Background screening

If inadequate background screening is performed by a fly-by-night operation, there is a very real danger that companies can be defrauded. The following case study deals with an employee who worked for a major financial institution handling vast sums of money. She claimed that she had a bachelors degree when, in fact, she only had a matric certificate.

During 2009, a verification consultant at MIE received a phone call from the candidate whose credentials were being verified. The institution had started a project to verify the credentials of its current employees. The candidate told the MIE consultant that she would pay her R5000 to positively verify her claimed qualification. She had lied to her employer and claimed she had a bachelor’s degree.

The MIE consultant refused to be bribed, and stated that she could not produce a fake MIE certificate; she then put the call through to her manager. The candidate, clearly very desperate, then offered the manager R10 000 to fake the result of the check. MIE immediately brought the matter to the attention of the financial institution, and the candidate was dealt with accordingly. The candidate’s name was submitted by MIE to the South African Fraud Prevention Society (SAFPS) for listing on their fraud database.

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