PETALING JAYA: The internship of a Perdana Fellow at the Investment, Trade and Industry Ministry (Miti) has been terminated for violating the terms and conditions of the programme, says the Youth and Sports Ministry.
The ministry's corporate and communication unit said that it took note of a recent incident involving the fellow placed under Miti.
"Public university students list their achievements when applying for the Perdana Fellow programme.
"However, after further examination, it was found that the certificate submitted (by the individual concerned) for one of the achievements was fake.
"The individual will be terminated from participating in the Fellow Perdana programme for violating its terms and conditions," said the ministry in a statement on Wednesday (Sept 13)
The intern claimed on social media that one of his achievements included a NASA scholarship offer and also named him as one of their Citizen Scientists in 2020 for being in the top 1% of its Artemis Student Challenge Programme.
However, netizens were quick to point out the irregularities as they could not find his name on NASA's website list of Citizen Scientists.
They also found that the programme was only open to US citizens and permanent residents as participants had to be on-site in Houston, Texas.
The Youth and Sports Ministry said that the former fellow would be offered counselling sessions.
"We will initiate an investigation to strengthen the implementation of this programme in the future," said the ministry.
