…Obtained diploma from Greece College eight years before institution was accredited

AS questions continue to swirl regarding the academic qualifications of People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Presidential Candidate, Irfaan Ali, more doubt has been cast over his initial diploma which he obtained from a college in Athens, Greece in 2002, eight years before the institution was accredited by the authorities in that country.

Ali and the opposition PPP have been dodging questions pertaining to his qualifications and the General Secretary of the party, Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, has placed a gag on Ali from discussing his qualifications with the media.

However, recent checks by this publication have placed more doubt over Ali’s initial qualification which propelled him through to the doctorate he obtained from the University of the West Indies recently.

Between October, 2000 and July of 2002, two years after the City Unity College in Athens, Greece was established, Ali graduated with a Higher Diploma in Business Administration from that institution. The college, according to its website, was founded in 1999.
The institution states on its website that, “it has been operating officially recognised by the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs of Greece under the Ministerial Decision of 27, July 2010”, eight years after Ali obtained his diploma from the institution.
Further, the institution stated that it was not until 2012 that it commenced running as a college as amended and gazetted by Greek law.

It remains unclear if between the years 2000 and 2002, the college operated online, distance learning diploma programmes, similar to what Ali said he obtained during that period.

Ali’s tertiary academic journey commenced at the University of Guyana, however, he dropped out of the programme.
Later he attended a mysterious school, identified as the Chamber Business School on the West Bank of Demerara, an institution which the National Accreditation Council has no knowledge of.

A transcript was provided for Ali from that institution by businessman, Joshua Safeek, who issued a statement in January 2019 stating that he was the first chairman of the Chamber Business College.

The transcript was issued on January 10, 2001 for entry into the Greek institution, although Ali was midway through his online studies at the Greek college, having commenced studies there In October 2000.

Having completed his studies at the mysterious West Demerara college and the City Unity College in Athens, Ali went on to read for a Master’s Degree in Human Resource Planning and Development which, according to Ali, he obtained in January of 2003 from the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi, India.

As such, between the years 2000 and 2003, Ali obtained a higher diploma from the college in Athens, Greece, as well as a Master’s degree from the institution in India. However, nothing was mentioned by the former Housing Minister about a Bachelor’s degree during this period.

A Stabroek News article of April 2019 reported that the diploma Ali obtained from the college in Athens gained him admission to the Master’s programme in India and according to the article, this was facilitated through the Chamber Business School.

However, confusion surrounds how the former Minister of Housing and Water was able to undertake the rigors of tertiary studies in such a short space of time.

Ali obtained yet another certificate from a foreign university, this time from the University of Sunderland in the United Kingdom, which awarded him in September of 2006, a Bachelor of Arts Second Class Honours (Second Division) in Business Management.
On that certificate, the name “Mohammed” is spelt incorrectly, since Ali carries the name Mohamed Irfaan Ali.

This suggests that Ali read for his Bachelor’s degree in 2006, three years after gaining the Master’s Degree from the university in India.

Recently, two citizens have moved to the High Court seeking clarification on Ali’s qualifications, which they alleged might be false.

According to court documents, Attorney-at-Law, Stephen Lewis, for the applicants Dianna Deravinne Rajcumar and Phillip Marcus, wants the High Court to declare that they are “entitled to know the qualification antecedents” of Ali.

Jagdeo and the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) are named as the respondents in the case.

Rajcumar and Marcus say that in keeping with their constitutional right to freedom of expression, “in particular to receive ideas and information without interference” and their constitutional “right to vote”, they “have a right to information on the candidates for the election” including their educational backgrounds.