[Davidp00]

>He had started working at Prasa 15 years earlier, shooting up the ranks to become chief engineer, thanks to his fake qualifications.

This is the bit I find remarkable. He actually did the job for 15 years and moved up to chief engineer.

Was he actually a good engineer or did his performance not matter at all for his career progress?

[pertymcpert]

TFA says under him they bought trains from Spain that were useless in SA because they were too tall. So...