By: Roberth Orihuela
Plagiarism is in vogue. to the case of the president peter castle we can add that of Esdras Medina Minaya, president of the Education Commission of the Congress and parliamentarian of Renovación Popular for the Arequipa region.
Medina did a master’s degree in Universidad Andina Nestor Cáceres Velasquez (UANCV), in the process of being closed for failing to comply with Sunedu requirements. In June 2020, he presented a group work, an exact copy of a report from the Comptroller General of the Republic. There is copy paste even of the photographs of the official report and the source is not cited.
The congressman alleges that it was just a presentation to discuss in class, however, the lawyer Edgardo Lajo Paredes warns that monographic works or subjects must cite the sources. “It is an ethical principle”, added the specialist.
The 18-page document that Medina credits as co-author is posted on the virtual platform Coursehero.com. Its titled “Audit to the Educational Institution Víctor Andrés Belaunde, province of Arequipa”, a full replica of a Comptroller’s report to that school for the health emergency. In addition to Medina, there are four authors, one of whom is an advisor to the parliamentary office, Paúl Voltz Oporto.
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The second and third pages appear to be the only paragraphs of the authors’ own. There the educational institution is described and a brief historical overview is made. A vision and mission are also included.
On the fourth page the plagiarism begins. From point 1.2 Scope of the Audit, hereinafter, the text is fully the same as the Comptroller’s report, No. 009-2020-OCI/0710-SVC, published on June 17 of that year. The order of some points is reversed.
For example, point III is “Scope” in the original report. Medina inverts it and places it as point 1.2 “Scope of the audit”. Similarly, the subtitle IV is changed. Information on the activity, from the Comptroller’s report, by point 1.3. Controlled matter, information and criteria of the authors. In both with different titles, the text and content that follows is the same as the Comptroller’s report.
The position of point II is also reversed. Objectives (Comptrollership), and they place it as 1.4 Objectives of the audit. But the inner text is the same.
After that, all the following points and contents (photos, text and tables) are the same as those of the audit report. The conclusions, recommendations and appendices or annexes are carbon copies. Everything, except the signatures of the members of the audit committee and an email that is the last page of the Comptroller’s report.
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Even the legal criterion, which is always cited in the Comptroller’s reports, is copied and taken by the now parliamentarian and his groupmates. Nothing escapes them, except for the headers and footers, where the Comptroller’s seals are.
Citing sources was not required.
Initially, Medina said that he did not remember the work in question despite the fact that this medium gave him a copy.
The next day, He acknowledged that it was his work but that he had not plagiarized. “You want to make something that is not look like plagiarism,” he argued.
explained that the work it was not to audit the school, but to take a report from any institution to present it in class and discuss it to see if it was well or poorly developed. “We took him to class to do the criticism together with the professor and the rest of my classmates, because my master’s degree was on local and regional government management, to see if they complied with the controls,” he added.
Congressman has been one of the staunchest defenders of the university counter-reform. Photo: diffusion
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We asked him why the work signed with their names did not have any reference to the Control Visit Report No. 009-2020.
“I am explaining to you what we have brought to evaluate and discuss. It is not a job done by us. It was to discuss internally in the classroom, to make contributions and capture them in another document,” he added.
But if it was an evaluation of the report, then they must have visited the school too, we asked him.
“It’s a course work. The one who does the evaluation is the teacher. The report is oral, the debates are oral because we attended in person. We did not have to evaluate the entity (Comptroller), but we had to evaluate if the institution (Collegium) really complied. We have not evaluated the Comptroller. They did not require us to put where we have taken from, ”he added.
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So, if it was a job just to be discussed in the classroom, Why go to the trouble of changing subtitles, text order and removing footnotes? Wasn’t it easier to take the report as it was and discuss it?
Congressman Esdras Medina stands firm and assures that he did not plagiarize, it was only for discussion.
It is an ethical breach not to quote
Lawyer Edgardo Lajo Paredes explains that any monographic or subject work must cite the sources from which the information is obtained. “Although it is not a punishable crime, it is an unwritten law of ethics to cite the source out of respect. They are basic academic principles. They teach us from undergraduate. In this case, the man has tried to pass off a report that is public as his own work, ”he specified.
