FACT-CHECK: Jobs Offer to Gambians by ‘Ministry of Labour, Civil Service and Human Resource Development’ is Fake

By Mustapha Ceesay

A post by a social media user (Rlexx-90) promoted as sponsored content and published on Facebook on 3^rd August, 2024 bearing the Gambia Government’s seal (the Coat of Arms) opened a call for applications by the “Ministry of Labour, Civil Service and Human Resource Development”.

The post stated that the said “ministry” is hiring “full-time/part-time employees” with a “minimum daily salary: 500-3000GMD”, “free choice of working hours”, “free choice of part-time or full-time” working hours, and encouraged candidates to “register and apply”.

Findings

The Gambia Government’s list of cabinet ministries on the State House website has none called the “Ministry of Labour, Civil Service and Human Resource Development”. The list has the Ministry of Trade, Industry, Regional Integration and Employment, as well as the Ministry of Public Service.

Neither the Ministry of Trade, Industry, Regional Integration and Employment; nor the Ministry of Public Service had posted anything on its websites aligns with the subject of the post by social media account (Rlexx-90).

The subject of latest update by the Ministry of Trade, Industry, Regional Integration and Employment on its website dated 24^th July, 2024 is Trade Minister commits to joint special economic zones; while that of the Ministry of Public Service is DSPD, UNICEF organizes mid-year review meeting.

The subject of the latest Facebook post featuring a call for applications by the Ministry of Trade, Industry, Regional Integration and Employment on 4^th August, 2024 was targeted at Gambian Business community for the importation of petroleum products, food and other essential commodities.

The post by Rlexx-90 lacks important features that calls for applications by The Gambia Government, through its recruiting arm – the Personnel Management Office (PMO), usually contain. Such a recruitment drive from the government would include a website and portal links, specific job titles, deadline for application, criteria or requirements for application including education, work experience among others.

A recent call by the Personnel Management Office inviting applications to fill in the vacant positions at the Department of Information Services under the Ministry of Information has indicated a website link and a portal link for applicants file in their applications.

As of Tuesday, 6th August, the post by Rlexx-90 appeared to have been deleted from Facebook, or its privacy settings changed as it was no longer accessible. However, it was labelled as a “scam” by Gambian journalist Mam Demba Bojang here.

Reverse image searches

Reverse image searches on TinEye produced zero results, meaning no other matches of the flyer containing the fake job advertisement were found online.

However, a reverse image search on Google Images produced at least one similar fake job opportunity in Trinidad and Tobago published on 3rd August, 2024 on TikTok – the same day as the fake jobs targeted at Gambians was published.

The Labour Ministry in the Caribbean country said the TikTok video regarding its hiring practices is false. The post was published by a strange account owner with the username Hiqmdtp-721, which uses a similar avatar profile photo as Rlexx-90.

A scam

Based on our research, the post by Rlexx-90 purporting the so-called “Ministry of Labour, Civil Service and Human Resource Development” to be an official Gambia government agency is FAKE and a scam targeted at Gambian Facebook users.