KARACHI: On the directives of Sindh Government, verification of degrees of the officials from Basic Pay Scale BPS-16 to BPS-20 of Karachi and Water Sewerage Board (KWSB) has started, Mahmood Qadir, Deputy Managing Director of Human Resources Department of KWSB revealed. It is the first ever checking of KWSB officials’ degrees and certificates for which government has already allocated Rs 10 million, he informed. The secondary and higher secondary certificates, graduation and master degrees besides engineering degrees of the employees would be sent to their respective education boards and universities in Karachi and other parts of Sindh from where they have passed out. This practice to check out the originality of academic credentials of the employees, their degrees and certificates would be sent to around 24 districts of Sindh, as several employees of KWSB have been possessing education papers from different education institutes, colleges and universities. Most of officials of KWSB belong to Hyderabad, Larkana, Khairpur, Shikarpur, Jacobabad and Mirpurkhas, Qadir noted. To avoid any malpractice KWSB has imposed ban on the movement of service files containing academic papers. However, some of the KWSB employees’ service files have been taken by the Establishment Anti Corruption Department and National Accountability Bureau Karachi for inquires. According to KWSB, five officials of 20-grade, 42 of 19-grade, 237 of 18-grade, 349 of grade-17 and 562 officials of grade-16 have been put on verification of education credential. They belong to Finance, Land, Administration and Planning, Taxation, Bulk Water, Electrical, Mechanical and Projects besides officials serving districts east, west, south, central, Malir and Korangi of the KWSB. Qadir also said after completion of this process, checking of education papers of employees from grade-1 to grade-15 would also be undertaken. An official of KWSB claimed that on inter departmental checking it was found that around 45 to 50 percent of officials have submitted fake education certificates and degrees and most probably they would be relieved from their respective posts. So far only Malir Development Authority has terminated services of around 342 officials for submitting fake education certificates and degrees.