TWO officials at the National Training Unit (NTU) have been suspended last November after their fraudulent dealings with students studying at the Solomon Islands National University (SINU) were uncovered.
They reportedly forged the signature of the permanent secretary on award letters they supplied to students on the premise the students will be sponsored by the government.
It was believed the students paid them for the providing them the award letters.
The discovery resulted in the termination of awards of a good number of students during the first and second semester last year.
Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development (MEHRD) Dr Franco Rodie confirmed this to the Solomon Star yesterday.
Dr Rodie said he had cited 48 award letters that were being forged and therefore declared to be null and void.
He added there were many others that he is not aware of and they too have hard their awards terminated.
Dr Rodie said an investigation was carried out into the matter and after they found sufficient evidence, the two officers concerned were suspended.
He said a big sum of money is believed to have been collected from the students for these fake award letters, which has now backfired on both the officers and students concerned.
The incident happened after the last NCRA government decided in 2013 to sponsor all students studying at SINU.
Dr Rodie said the decision was very expensive and the current DCC government will not continue with it.
He said for this year 178 scholarships were awarded for in-service students whilst 100 for pre-service.
He said this covers all students in both national and regional institutions.
By DANIEL NAMOSUAIA