Higher education minister Zambry Abdul Kadir said the existing law provides for a fine of up to RM200,000, two years’ imprisonment or both for individuals or institutions found committing the offence.

He was responding to a supplementary question from Dr RA Lingeshwaran during the question-and-answer session.

The senator had asked whether amendments were needed to Act 555 to ensure stricter action on the matter.

However, Zambry agreed with Lingeshwaran’s suggestion for an open audit to be held of all high-ranking government officials, including MPs and senators, to ensure that no one is using fake academic certificates.

Responding to Lingeshwaran’s original question on the award of fake PhD degrees in Malaysia and the number of institutions involved, Zambry said his ministry had not received any complaints about institutions of higher learning in the country awarding fake PhDs.

Zambry said every public university had a database system that stores information on students who have graduated, including PhD graduates.

“The data must be submitted to the ministry every quarter for collecting student data. The ministry also has developed a system for searching for information on recipients of honorary and doctorate degrees from public and private universities on the graduate reference hub for employment and training portal.

“The data is updated after receiving approval from the university senates, so we can provide a reference for any party in conducting a search,” he said.