Posted on 07/15/2015 7:32:18 PM PDT by markomalley
A federal employee occupied a high-ranking technology position at the Department of the Interior for several years before an investigation found that he had faked his education, according to a report published by the agency's inspector general in 2013 and obtained by National Journal.
The man, Faisal Ahmed, was the assistant director of the technology division of the Interior Department's Office of Law Enforcement and Security between 2007 and 2013.
The report, which has not been made public, was unexpectedly revealed at a Wednesday committee hearing, during a rocky few months for the government's information technology services. The director of the Office of Personnel Management stepped down last week after her agency revealed that a total of more than 22 million individuals were affected by a pair of data breaches, and other departments and agencies have come under scrutiny for their IT practices.
Faisal's name is redacted in the report, but Wyoming Rep. Cynthia Lummis referred to him by his full name multiple times while discussing the report at a Wednesday subcommittee hearing of the House Oversight Committee. Lummis is chairwoman of the committee's subpanel on the Interior Department.
According to the report, Ahmed obtained false university transcripts through an online service. He claimed to have obtained a bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh and a master's degree from the University of Central Florida, and submitted fake transcripts to his government file.
Lummis said Wednesday she was disturbed by the level of access Ahmed had. "I'm a little concerned—no, well, I'm more than a little concerned that he had access to law enforcement sensitive materials and other secure information, that he had falsified his background, and that now it appears that he is working for another federal agency, the U.S. Census Bureau," she said.
A spokesperson at the bureau said Wednesday that Ahmed was an employee there as recently as April, but that he no longer works there. A spokesperson for the Interior Department's Office of the Inspector General would not comment on the report.
Ahmed worked for the Department of the Interior for more than five years before he was investigated for the false transcripts. He resigned from the Department of the Interior three days after the investigation began in early July 2013, according to the report.
LinkedIn was Ahmed's undoing. In 2013, a representative of the University of Central Florida's alumni association was searching for graduates of the university living in the Washington, D.C. area when she found Ahmed's LinkedIn profile, which claimed he received a master's in technology management there in 1993, the report said.
The alumni representative invited Ahmed to connect with her on LinkedIn. He accepted, but later deleted the connection. Finding this behavior strange, she called up the university registrar, and found that Ahmed never even attended the institution, according to the report. She then reached out to his employer, setting off the investigation.
Ahmed told investigators that the only formal education he ever received was at the Harvard Kennedy School, a program he attended after joining the Department of the Interior. The government paid for him to attend the program.
An internal newsletter from 2011 published in response to a Freedom of Information Act request announced Ahmed completed the Harvard Senior Executive Fellows Program and returned to his job at the Interior Department from on May 15, 2011.
Faisal Ahmed? I guess an American didn’t want the job.
With an Arab name like that, maybe he was lying about a lot more than his education.
So many in these federal jobs went to historically black colleges and universities. It’s like a rubber stamp to get hired with a degree from one of those places.
I wonder how many federal employees have fake degrees. It wouldn’t surprise me if there was more than a few.
Department of Interior, US Census Bureau... what’s next?
ISIS?
Maybe? YA THINK????
Worse than faking his degrees is having what appears to be another Obamanoid Muslim involved with government “Law Enforcement and Security.”
typical of the feds, maybe they should check the dopey woman in the State Dept, her name eludes me right now.
The Chinese may have been cross checking the files they downloaded, and ratted him out because he was Muslim. The Americans then had to build a cover story for how they found out.
The, er, Hahvahd Kennedy School will pass anyone with the right amount of bucks.
If you are going to live a life of a lie...
Don’t put it on social media...
My background check would have revealed he forged his education in no time. Who is doingbtheir background checks these day? Obviously someone who isn’t doing their job.
My background check would have revealed he forged his education in no time. Who’s doing their background checks these days? Obviously someone who isn’t doing their job.
“The Chinese may have been cross checking the files they downloaded, and ratted him out because he was Muslim. The Americans then had to build a cover story for how they found out.”
Seems plausible. At this point, they might be a better source of accurate information.
This happened during the Bush years - he is another hand-holding muslim fan.
I’m not surprised at the story, however I am surprised because he “un-linked” someone they considered that strange behavior and called the employer and questioned their education? Sounds a little fishy. I know they were an alumni recruiter, but still....
I’d bet a better qualified American wanted, applied, and interviewed for the job, but since he was a white male he didn’t get preferential treatment
I know a guy who applied for a job as a police officer and the job application was 65 pages with more depth than his top secret clearance for the military.
How does anyone work in a federal department handling sensitive information with no apparent background check at all?
Probably no American was even considered for the job. If you’re over 40 and you are not in a protected class, you might as well toss resumes out the window to identity thieves.
Because that’s probably what you’re doing with a lot of Indeed and Craigslist jobs. I won’t even consider a Craiglist job anymore unless it’s being advertised by a real company with an address and a website.
The Army back around fifteen years ago...did a survey and did come to realize that at least a hundred employees with management status...had bachelor or master degrees from various fake universities. You’d pay around five to eight thousand for a bachelor’s degree, and a minimum of ten thousand for a Master’s degree. These ‘were’ legit colleges at some point, then dissolved away, and someone had gone out and bought the name of the university, then turned the action back on without the classes or manpower.
I don’t remember the final outcome but I think the Army didn’t fire any of them...just removing them from management status. They were GS and it’s practically impossible to fire a GS guy.
You have the same problem in Georgia over the past decade where some teachers were noted with fake master degrees, and that led to a court case where the teachers tried to defend the fake degrees (it was the only step-up on significant pay possible).
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