PETALING JAYA: A Perdana Fellow interning at the Investment, Trade and Industry Ministry (Miti) has been terminated for lying on his achievements, it was revealed.
In a statement, the Youth and Sports Ministry’s corporate and communication unit said it took note of the recent viral incident involving the fellow placed under Miti.
“The public university student listed a few achievements when applying for the programme.
“However, for one of the listed achievements, after further examination with the organisers, it was found that the submitted certificate was not genuine.
“In relation to this issue, the individual will be terminated from participating in the Fellow Perdana programme for violating the terms and conditions,” it said.
On April 30, 2020, the then 20-year-old fellow had uploaded on social media that National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) in the United States offered him a scholarship and named him as one of their Citizen Scientists for scoring in the top 1% of their Artemis Student Challenge Programme.
However, netizens were quick to point out the irregularities as they could not find his name on Nasa’s website listing.
They also found that the programme was only available to US citizens and Permanent Residents since participants have to be on-site in Houston, Texas, throughout the competition.
The Youth and Sports Ministry said the former fellow would be offered counselling sessions.
“At the same time, we will initiate an investigation to ensure the strengthening of the implementation of this programme in the future. The ministry consistently supports the government’s efforts to strengthen good governance in all government programmes and will not compromise on any wastage in this regard,” the ministry stated.
A total of 56 youths have been selected to participate in the Perdana Fellows programme this year, and their stint will run from Aug 23 to Dec 31.
The participants will receive direct guidance and mentoring from Cabinet ministers, who will have to mentor two participants for their respective ministries.
