Kuala Lumpur(VNA) – An estimated one in 20potential hires in Malaysia has fake qualifications while one in 10 hascredentials from unaccredited institutions, according to Akhbar &Associates, a Malaysian fraud examiner.

This comes as aforeign documentary showcases a list of possibly more than 80 Malaysians withlocal addresses having allegedly purchased fake degrees via Axact, a Pakistanifirm known for running degree mills.

Akhbar Satar,managing director of Akhbar & Associates, said many people with fakedegrees are applying for senior management jobs and it happens in multipleindustries, including banks, clinics and hospitals.

Akhbar wasresponding to an Al-Jazeera documentary into fake degree mills in Pakistan thatrevealed a list of those who allegedly bought fake qualifications, includingPhDs and Masters, from Axact.

The documentary filmrevealed that thousands of these fake degree holders were found to be workingas doctors, nurses, teachers and engineers in Southeast Asia, includingMalaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

Thousands of peopleare employed in safety critical jobs while holding bogus qualifications, itreported.

Akhbar said Malaysia is “one of the worst” when it came topeople buying fake degrees because the background-checking practices are poor. Most companies, hesaid, did not lodge a police report or take legal action against employees withfake degrees and resorted to internal action.

More than 370 fakeonline universities, which claim to be based in the US, are linked to Pakistanisoftware company Axact, among which are Brooklyn Park University, NixonUniversity and Newford University.

MalaysianQualifications Agency (MQA) chief executive officer Rahmah Mohamed said noorganisation should condone fake qualifications.

TheMalaysian government has put the quality of higher education a priority as akey factor in producing competitive human resources and talent to supportnational advancement, she said.

In Malaysia, therewas uproar when news broke in February that several politicians, includingDeputy Foreign Minister Datuk Marzuki Yahya and former Johor mentri besar OsmanSapian, had misrepresented their qualifications.-VNA