In May 2019 New Business Ethiopia reported that a six-year review in the Southern Nations region found about 3,200 civil servants who had been hired with fake university degrees, diplomas, or certificates.
Officials said many of the forged papers clustered in Sidama zone, and that legal action had begun against people working on fake credentials. The Higher Education Relevance and Quality Agency was preparing a verification database so employers could check documents before hiring.
Fake papers are not only a personnel scandal. They show how political loyalty and weak verification can crowd out merit in a large public sector, a problem also reported later in Addis Ababa agencies.
As governance archive, the count remains a dated marker for readers who track corruption and professional standards inside Ethiopia’s civil service.
Sources: New Business Ethiopia