Abdullah Ahad?s contract with the Ministry of Education has been cancelled. The decision was made by the Public Services Commission which has been probing questions about Mr. Ahad?s qualifications to work as an Education Officer.

The former Bermuda College lecturer continues to deny any wrongdoing, and yesterday accused Bermuda Sun reporter Meredith Ebbin of a determined campaign against him.

He also claims that he was ?set up? by the Education Ministry which had advised him to ignore the Press reports raising questions about his qualifications and not to defend himself publicly.

The Opposition United Bermuda Party, which has been pushing for a decision on Mr. Ahad?s future, reacted swiftly to the development yesterday.

?I really support the termination of Mr. Ahad to the extent that we must not be seen as being soft-minded, passive and pandering to unethical conduct on the part of those who occupy positions of trust in our community,? said Shadow Education Minister Neville Darrell.

?I can only hope that the Ministry of Education will move swiftly and conscientiously in bringing about a replacement to Mr. Ahad?s position so that the very critical work of the infusion of information technology in the school curriculum of our students can take place without further delay.?

But, for Mr. Ahad, the saga is far from over.

He told that he is seeking a meeting with the Bermuda Public Services Union and efforts to clear his name may include legal action.

?I am definitely confident I will be cleared in the end. Anybody with eyes should be able to see the evidence that I have presented and to recognise them as being a confirmation of everything that I have said.?

Government began a probe of Mr. Ahad?s credentials following reports in the Bermuda Sun that the former College lecturer did not appear to have the minimum qualifications for his $80,000 a year job.

The Ministry launched an initial probe in May before handing the matter to the Public Services Commission.

Yesterday it issued a terse Press release through the Department of Communication and Information saying the probe had ended in Mr. Ahad?s termination, but did not give any reasons or say what the investigation had determined.

?After a thorough investigation, the Ministry of Education has stated that the Public Services Commission has cancelled the contract of Mr. Abdullah Ahad,? the statement read.

?Mr. Ahad was employed with the Ministry of Education and Development had (sic) been the Education Officer with responsibility for Information Technology. His termination became effective on Friday 13th 2004.?

Mr. Ahad told yesterday that he did not want to make any public comments until after he had met with the Bermuda Public Services Union and, possibly, a lawyer.

Asked if he was still standing by his earlier claims of innocence, he said: ?Definitely. I have not done anything wrong. I haven?t been untruthful or misleading in any way.?

Mr. Ahad said he was still waiting to find out the reasons for his termination.

?I?ve received something (from Personnel Services) but nothing telling me anything specific. Basically they were telling me a clause was being enacted but the reason for it being enacted was not clear.?

He later said that the letter said he had made statements which were either untrue or misleading, but did not say what those statements were.

?To accuse somebody of making a false statement and not telling them what that statement is, is ludicrous and outrageous,? he said.

He added that the Personnel Services department had told him yesterday that they did not have to specify what was untrue or misleading about his job application.

?I still stand by the fact that I have not made any false statement in my application,? he continued.

?Everything that I have said was true and everything can be substantiated ? and I have the documents to prove it.?

The Bermuda Sun had reported that both Cambridge College, in Massachusetts ? where Mr. Ahad claims to have studied and taught computers ? and Harvard University had said that there was no record of him having studied at those institutions.

The Bermuda Sun also reported that he told the newspaper that he had a College degree, a Master?s degree and a PhD.

And the paper later reported that All American University which he said granted him the PhD was a defunct ?paper mill? which sold degrees through the Internet for as little as $129 for an ?associate? degree and $159 for a ?doctoral? degree.

Mr. Ahad had insisted that he had studied at Harvard and had a College degree as well as a Masters and a Phd, according to the Bermuda Sun reports.

Asked if he was standing by comments made to the paper, he said: ?I am not standing by any statement that were allegedly made to anybody in the Press.

?What I am standing by is what I told the Ministry. What I told the Ministry was the qualifications they requested were the qualifications that I had. And those are the ones I provided them with.?

When asked what he would be doing for employment he said he was now ?fully employed trying to rectify the situation?.

He said he had not appeared before the PSC and was not entirely sure whether the body had received verification of his credentials which he had presented to the Education Ministry.

?Not only did I not meet with the PSC but I received a letter from someone who was supposedly an acting director who I have never talked to either,? he said.

?It may not be necessary that legal action will be followed. If officials from those institutions are being ignored then we have a problem.?

When asked, Mr. Ahad said he had not been offered another position. ?But as far as I am concerned all of my credentials are in order, so I would not be reluctant to apply for any job in the government or the private sector because my credentials are such that I bring value to any company or organisation that I work for.?

He continued: ?The only thing that has happened in this particular case is there has been false allegations made by the Bermuda Sun reporter Meredith Ebbin and based on those false allegations people have assumed somethings to be true that weren?t true and things to be untrue that were true. She got the story completely wrong and anybody looking at the facts should be able to determine that.?

Asked why he did not publicly defend himself, he said the Ministry had advised him not to.

?People at the Ministry told me to ignore it. And I thought they were giving me the proper advice. But it turned out they really just set me up.?

And asked what he thought the Ministry?s motives were, he said: ?I think they thought that it would just go away. But they didn?t recognise that this was a relentless pursuit by her (Ms Ebbin)?. Neither the Minister of Education Terry Lister, the Department of Communication and Information responded to calls seeking further comment.

Mr. Darrell questioned why it had taken so long to resolve what he described as a ?fairly straightforward human resources matter?.

?Certainly the verification of an application and the credentials indicated on that application should not have taken in excess of three months. That it has, in my view, has caused unnecessary anxiety in the community,? he said.

?Maybe they have done him a disservice if he was not told why he was terminated.?

But Mr. Darrell added: ?I have it from fairly good sources that he was not who he represented himself to be.?

Asked whether Government should be seeking some legal redress, he said that the issue would have been spelled out in Mr. Ahad?s application for the job.

?At the time Mr. Ahad made his application to the Government he was well aware of the terms and conditions of employment and the condition that fraudulent representation could result in termination of employment.?

And he said with the new school term on the horizon he hoped that the matter had now been put to rest.

The Bermuda College issued a statement saying that they were satisfied that Mr. Ahad was qualified for the job he held there.

?An Information Technology instructor provides communications support to career lecturers, and is required to have demonstrable knowledge in areas such as technical writing, database management, word processing and to be proficient with such programmes as the International Computer Driver?s License,? the statement said.

?Mr. Ahad satisfactorily met these requirements until his resignation from the College last summer.?