FIRED from his job in disgrace. That was the end result of Abdallah Ahad's four-month stint as a Bermuda newsmaker.

The Public Services Commission (PSC) made the decision to terminate Mr. Ahad's $81,000-per-year contract as an information technology education officer because he failed to provide proof of the credentials he had stated on his job application form.

The decision followed revelations by the in April this year that two colleges listed on Mr. Ahad's resum? ? Harvard's undergraduate school and Cambridge College ? had no record of him.

In addition, the found that the institution where Mr. Ahad said he received his PhD, the All American University, no longer existed and was a "diploma mill" where degrees were sold on the Internet for as little as $129 each.

The PSC decision two weeks ago appeared to back up the 's conclusion that Mr. Ahad's listed qualifications were not what he claimed they were. When asked to explain the decision to fire Mr. Ahad, PSC acting secretary Judith Hall Bean said simply: "We asked for proof, proof was not provided and the Public Service Commission made a decision."

Mr. Ahad had worked as a communications lecturer at the Bermuda College for three years before moving to the Education Ministry a year ago.

HE first made the news when he complained that three College lecturers had made racially insensitive remarks. The College activated disciplinary procedures that ended in the dismissal of Dr. Sean O'Connell, who was fired after 29 years in the job.

Dr. O'Connell has denied any wrongdoing and the Bermuda Public Services Union is representing him in his claim that he was not given due process.

Shadow Education Minister Neville Darrell questioned why it had taken so long for a decision to be made on Mr. Ahad's case, when it appeared to be "a fairly straightforward human resources matter".

Mr. Darrell said: "Certainly the verification of an application and the credentials indicated on that application should not have taken in excess of three months. In my view it has caused unnecessary anxiety in the community."

After being sacked, Mr. Ahad spoke to and told them he had done nothing wrong and that he would be vindicated. He also claimed he had been "set up" by the Education Ministry, who, he said, had advised him not to defend himself publicly.

"I still stand by the fact that I have not made any false statement in my application," Mr. Ahad said. "Everything that I have said was true and everything can be substantiated ? and I have the documents to prove it."

Clearly those documents were not sufficient to satisfy the scrutiny of PSC. And Mr. Ahad had not said before in public that he could prove the legitimicacy of his qualifications from the time the 's allegations first appeared.

He explained this thus: "People at the Ministry told me to ignore it. But it turned out they really just set me up. I think they (the Ministry) thought that it would just go away. But they didn't recognise that this was a relentless pursuit by her ( reporter Meredith Ebbin)?"

The practice of shooting the messenger is a familiar tactic widely employed in Bermuda by those caught by the media with their pants down.

If Mr. Ahad cannot prove his listed qualifications are genuine, then how can he expect to keep his job?