Sierra Leone News: Exam Malpractice: ACC Discovers Structural Gaps at WAEC
By Stephen V. Lansana
Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has discovered several structural and agency loopholes in the national office of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) which create the enabling environment for examination malpractice, the Commission said on Friday.
The structural and agency loopholes include, but not limited to, an existing examination malpractice syndicate between some WAEC staff and pupils; serious lapses in the script and examination management regime; weak controls in the script room; lack of proper record in respect of script movements; and no records of issued scripts maintained by the script room staff. “This creates the enabling environment for staff to perpetuate money-making plans with desperate pupils, teachers, and/or parents to carry out examination fraud,” the Commission said.
This find came after officials of the ACC and the police arrested 71 students at a location in Aberdeen, Freetown, in September 2018, following investigations into the examination malpractice. The Commission said, “Our findings established that the pupils were to write the examinations at night and return the scripts to some WAEC officials who would ensure they are surreptitiously included in the WAEC script room and marked as normal scripts. The principal suspects in this scheme are Vidal Wray, a contract staff at WAEC, who is on the run and wanted by the ACC; and one Aiah Mbayo, who coordinated the scheme and recruited the pupils.”
The Commission that it will work with the management of WAEC to conduct a systems and processes review of structures and operations of the examination body, as a matter of urgency, with a view to forestalling and preventing a recurrence of the criminality that has been discovered.