Witness: Document forged

National, Normal

THE University of PNG Institute of Distance and Continuing Education (IDCE) certificate produced by an accused charged with “uttering” as a qualifying certificate into the Police Training College at Bomana in NCD was a “forged” document.
Brian Hawke, the former coordinator of the adult matriculation course at the IDCE yesterday told the Waigani National Court that the certificate produced by an accused Peter Kulin to gain entry into the Bomana Police Training College in July 2005 was an “absolute” fake document.
Hawke, who is the current director of the UPNG IDCE, said he had personally checked the university records and found there was no such certificate issued by the university against the named person as there was no suchidentity (ID) records and transcripts against the accused nor were there any transcripts to show against this “forged” certificate, Hawke said.
He said whether students originated from any one of the 20 provincial centres throughout the country, the Waigani UPNG IDCE campus was the central where all records were kept.
The state late yesterday closed its case and the court reconvenes this afternoon when the defence counsel, Paul Othas from Paula Paraka Lawyers makes a ‘no case submission’ on behalf of his client.
The matter stems from a 31-year-old Peter Kulin from Laiagam, Enga, whom the state alleged produced fraudulent UPNG certificate and relevant documents to enable him to be recruited in July 2005 to the Bomana Police College to train as a policeman.
But three months into training, the college found out that some of the students were continuously failing their  exams which prompted the college to verify the certificates.
 Kulin claimed his certificate was genuine and issued by the IDCE in 2002 when he was a student of the Enga IDCE centre in Wabag.