Vice-President Inonge Wina says government will roll out the scrutiny exercise of fake certifications amongst civil servants to all public service institutions in order to bring sanity in the system.

And Vice-President Wina says police must avoid undertaking their duties over-zealously as was the case on Wednesday when they arrested 55 students from the Copperbelt University for peacefully protesting against delayed allowances.

She was responding to a question from Mkaika MMD member of parliament Peter Phiri, who wanted to know if government had any intentions of scrutinizing other civil servants after the Teaching Service Commission discovered teachers with fake qualifications.

Vice-President Wina said forgery of certifications amongst civil servants was undermining development in the country.

“Mr Speaker, forging of certificates is really undermining the development of the country because the people who use forged certificates may not really qualify to do the work the they are given and this a danger to both the security of the country as well as its development. So this is why government has introduced quality assurance in the civil service so that we detect this anomaly and deal with it. So this [scrutiny] will go in all the government ministries and departments to ensure that those that are recruited in the government or public service have got the relevant qualifications that are commensurate to the work that they are given,” Vice-President Wina said.

Meanwhile, the Vice-President said it was wrong for police officers to conduct themselves in an overzealous manner.

She was responding to Bweengwa UPND member of parliament Kasautu Michelo who wanted to find out why the PF government along with some overzealous police officers were violating the rights of citizens like they did in the case of the 55 CBU students who wanted to petition the District Commissioner.

“Your honour the Vice-President, PF is busy on a daily basis denting the image of this country by violating human rights with impunity and now my question is, why is the PF government and very few overzealous police officers on a rampant mode of arresting students especially the recent happening on the Copperbelt where students were arrested and detained for having a peaceful protest? I thank you,” said Michelo.

In response her response, Vice-President Wina said police should not disturb citizens who assemble in a peaceful manner.

“Mr Speaker, the incidence of the students who were arrested…and I think he is referring to the Copperbelt University students, I understand some students were detained for half a day or so. Apparently the students had not advised the police that they would take the action that they took. However, the students were peaceful and wanted to present a petition to the office of the DC but they were stopped half-way considering the damage to property that has been done before during these processions but they were released promptly because we believe that the police should not be overzealous in certain cases especially when citizens can assemble and undertaken a procession without any violence. But the police again should be informed about these happenings before the procession has been embarked on so that they are aware,” said Vice-President Wina.