The government is planning to make amendments to the Legal Profession Act in response to the Certificate of Legal Practice scandal.

"I would be making a report to the cabinet so that steps to be taken would be looked at, including the amendment of the Legal Profession Act," Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Dr Rais Yatim told reporters today.

Under the Legal Profession Act, all foreign law graduates as well as local students who obtained their external law degree must pass the CLP before they can practise law in Malaysia. Graduates from local universities are however exempted.

Rais added that the government will also be stepping up its monitoring of the Legal Profession Qualifying Board, which oversees the CLP examination, to ensure that it is more transparent and responsible.

"We will do whatever we can to make it more accountable. Though the board is independent, the government would not accept this premise and would not keep silent," he added.

Rais also chastised the board members for not doing their job.

"The Bar Council (chairman) and the rest of the board members do not seem to be performing their duties as needed," Rais lamented.

The six-member board came under fire following its decision to annul the examination results of the July CLP exam and the October supplementary exam after it was discovered that questions had been leaked to candidates.

In addition to the leakage, it was also revealed that the marks had been tampered with, forcing the board to regrade the papers.

The board has held CLP examination director Khalid Yusof, who has been with the board since 1993*, as responsible for the irregularities.

Police report

Yesterday, board member and chief registrar of Federal Court Abdul Wahab Said Ahmad lodged a police report, and Khalid was later quizzed by the police.

Asked if Khalid would be sacked, Rais replied that police investigations must be completed first.

"The director and his staff are free to carry out their duties but the board's monitoring is ineffective and has not been up to par," said Rais, who hinted that board members were also responsible for the scandal.

Apart from Abdul Wahab, the board, created under the Legal Profession Act, consists of Attorney General Ainum Mohd Saaid, Bar Council chairman Mah Weng Kwai, Federal Court judge Siti Norma Yaakob, High Court judge Abdul Wahab Patail and academic Shamsuddin Suhor.

Khalid, who is not a member of the board, was said to have intentionally misreported the marks obtained by a number of CLP candidates.

Rais said Ainum would be submitting a report to him on the matter this week. "She has already given me two statements."

* Editor's note : We erroneously stated Khalid has been the director since the inception of CLP in 1984. The copy has been corrected.