KEY POINTS:
The former head of immigration did not receive a PhD from the London School of Economics, the institute said last night.
Mary Anne Thompson will be investigated by police over allegations she doctored her CV to get senior public service roles, including in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.
Her resignation on Monday followed the State Services Commission's decision to refer to the police "serious questions" about qualifications Ms Thompson claimed to have when applying for senior roles.
The allegations are understood to concern a PhD from the LSE which Ms Thompson had claimed to have.
An LSE spokeswoman said last night: "A careful search of our records has revealed no evidence that Mary Anne Thompson received a PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science."
The spokeswoman said database staff had done a thorough search. Fake claims of LSE qualifications were rare.
Prime Minister Helen Clark said today she was surprised Ms Thompson's qualifications were not checked when she first applied for a public service position in 1990.
She said if Ms Thompson's qualifications were not checked the first time she applied to join the public service, their validity was probably not raised again.
Ms Thompson's tenure as immigration boss was already under a cloud because of help she gave to relatives to get residency in New Zealand in 2005.
In Parliament yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen said the credentials under question were from 1990 and 1998, when Ms Thompson was appointed to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.
In 1990, Ms Thompson was appointed as chief economic adviser with the Department of Maori Affairs.
The Department of Labour has no CV on file for her.
Treasury - where Ms Thompson worked from 1992 - said it destroyed employment files after 10 years.
But Ms Thompson included the PhD in information she gave media after she was appointed as Treasury's adviser to Winston Peters in 1996.
The investigation could question high-profile public servants about Ms Thompson's job interviews.
Full review
Immigration Minister Clayton Cosgrove said today that the branch of the Immigration Service which handled Ms Thompson's relatives' applications was under full review.
Ms Thompson was head of the service when she helped three of her relatives in Kiribati fill in their residence applications, and an internal inquiry discovered officials were instructed to override policy when they handled them.
She resigned earlier this week amid an inquiry by the State Services Commission.
Her relatives were granted residence permits, although the forms were filed late and the quota for Kiribati was full at the time.
They are still here, and Mr Cosgrove said today it was unlikely any action would be taken against them because what happened to their applications was not their fault.
Mr Cosgrove said he was not permitted, by law, to become involved in staff matters in government departments because that was the responsibility of the chief executive of the Labour Department, Christopher Blake.
"What I'm confident of is that the new chief executive has embarked on a full scale review of the Pacific branch, which will encompass all these issues," Mr Cosgrove said on Radio New Zealand.
"He is running the ruler over all these issues, I'm very confident he will ensure government policy is implemented absolutely by staff."
- With NZPA
