Asia-Pacific News
New Zealand police probe immigration head's credentials (Roundup)
By DPA
May 14, 2008, 22:24 GMT

Wellington - A high-flying New Zealand civil servant who resigned amid speculation that she had faked her academic qualifications did not have the doctorate from the London School of Economics that she claimed, according to media reports Thursday.

The school confirmed that a careful search of records had revealed no evidence that Mary Anne Thompson, who headed the Immigration Service, had received a PhD, Radio New Zealand reported.

Thompson, 53, resigned suddenly Tuesday, as the State Services Commission announced it had referred 'serious questions' about her qualifications to the police.

She was already under investigation for her role in her department's approval of residency permits for three members of her husband's extended family from the Pacific island state of Kiribati.

An official report, released after media inquiries, revealed that Thompson had helped the family fill in application forms, and that senior staff members were pressured into approving the applications despite the current immigration quota for Kiribati being already oversubscribed.

Thompson was regarded as one of the country's most trusted civil servants, having risen to be the highest-ranking female official in the Treasury and a senior executive in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet before moving in 2004 to head the Immigration Service in the Labour Department.

Prime Minister Helen Clark, who had reportedly referred to her as 'Doctor Thompson' in Parliament in the past, told Radio New Zealand she was 'surprised that she got to the level she got to without her qualifications being checked.'