U.L. Wants Commerce Inspector Prosecuted Over Academic Fraud

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Report of the Special Committee to Investigate Academic Fraud at the University of Liberia, A. Romeo Horton College of Business and Public Administration, 104th commencement Convocation

September 30, 2024

Findings of the investigation:

1. It was revealed that on November 11, 2015, at 2:15 p.m., the University’s records were altered and a student Mr. Dahngbaye M. Wogbeh with Identification Number 26371 was fraudulently replaced with D. Dorr Cooper by Mr. Kollie T. Kamara, a former employer of the University of Liberia. With this, Mr. Cooper managed to surreptitiously do one senior course- Public Enterprise and Public Administration (PADM 406) in 2017/2018 second semester and obtained an (F) grade under Mr. Prince Wisseh, who taught the course according to the Department of Public Administration records.
2. The Committee discovered that on May 10, 2024, another modification was made to the Identification number 26371 by Mr. Jonathan Kangar who swapped Ms. NIOME NOWAH TYLER, a 2019 graduate of the University records and placed it under the Identification number 26371 that is now bearing the name, D. Dorr Cooper. The purpose of this alteration or swapping was to allow Mr. D. Dorr Cooper to graduate using NIOME NOWAH TYLER’s grades or records.
3. The committee also discovered that the record that is now bearing the name D. Dorr cooper was updated in the university’s records system by Ms. Mercy W. Koquoi on Saturday, August 31 ,but she mistakenly typed D. Dor Cooper leaving out one of the Rs in the name.
4. It was further revealed during the investigation that Mr. Lawrence F. Seitua, Assistant Dean of Admission being familiar with the name, corrected the spelling of the name by adding the other (r) that was left out by Ms. Mercy Koquoi; thus, making it D. Dorr Cooper, which raises suspicion about his role in the saga.
5. Mr. Thurston Lewis, the PADM clearing Officer informed the Committee that he raised concern upon seeing the name D. Dorr Cooper on the PADM clearing roster before the final list was submitted to the Dean of the College, but his assertions were all proven false when his team mates on the PADM Clearing team, Mr. Goffa Suah and Mr. Foday Jaleiba admitted that the name in question remained on the final list until Dr. Taylor called the attention of the Dean to it.
6. Mr. Foday Jaleiba who represented the OES on the PADM clearing Team sincerely admitted clearing D. Dorr Cooper’s name for graduation along with Mr. Lewis who previously denied having any knowledge.
7. The Chairman of the Department, Mr. Arthur B. Sharpe also denied knowing the name and the person bearing the name Mr. D. Dorr Cooper, but unfortunately, further investigation by the team established that Chairman Sharpe knows Mr. D. Dorr Cooper well and has interacted with him and even introduced D. Dorr Cooper to Professor Dr. Lester Tenny for clearance during the 103rd Commencement clearing process.
8. The Committee discovered that Mr. Goffa K. Suah, Coordinator of the department of Public Administration approved the name D. Dorr Cooper in the system although being fully aware that he is not a student of the department.
9. During our investigation, reliable sources contacted confirmed that Mr. Augustine Z. Garpi helped in the distribution of the money received from Mr. Cooper.

We further recommend that:

1. Subsequent clearance process be based on ledgers of students from the requisite Department to avoid the detection of backlogged grades as in the case of D. Dorr Cooper and many others who graduated unnoticed.

This recommendation is based on the premise that a transcript does not provide detailed information about a student total records to determine eligibility for graduation since it is a summary of their total works. Instead, a student’s ledger is the appropriate record to be used since it bears the student’s detailed information.

2. Distribute Roster of applicants for graduation to all department heads one week prior to faculty senate meeting for graduation clearance.

Mr. D. Dorr Cooper be prosecuted by the Ministry of Justice for academic fraud.