The government today called for measures to make the much maligned Certificate in Legal Practice more transparent and accountable so that it would not be open to abuse.

"We need to look at the CLP issue critically. Let us put forward our views that the system we are recommending is incorruptible, fair, transparent and accountable," Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Dr Rais Yatim told participants at a one-day workshop on reviewing the CLP in Putrajaya.

The workshop was to discuss the future of the CLP after the controversy in November where the examination results were annulled and regraded.

Among those present were Bar Council president Mah Weng Kwai, council's deputy Roy Rajasingham, attorney general Abdul Gani Patail and the Federal Court registrar Abdul Wahab Said Ahmad.

'No supremo'

Rais added that the CLP should not solely be in the hands of one person and there should be a check-and-balance mechanism.

"No one officer of the examination system is to be a supremo. Let there be external examiners and let there be venues for appeal," he urged.

The five-member Legal Profession Qualifying Board which oversees the CLP has held the body's director Khalid Yusof responsible for the mark-tampering scandal.

According to the board, Khalid was charged with the task of transferring grades from the CLP exam papers on a master list which the board would later endorse.

The alleged tampering of the marks had caused the board to regrade the examination marks, failing more than half of those who had originally passed.

The members of the board at the time of the controversy consisted of former attorney-general Ainum Mohd Saaid, Federal Court judge Siti Norma Yaakob, High Court judge Abdul Wahab Patail, Mah and academic Shamsuddin Suhor.

Investigations concluded

Rais later told reporters that police investigations on the board's director have concluded.

"I leave the matter to the board and the police's report on the matter will be studied. I do not know if you need to have further pursuit of the matter. He (Khalid) has been suspended. I think that is good enough," he said.

Last November, the board came under fire following its decision to annul the examination results of both the July CLP exam and October supplementary exam after it discovered that examination questions have been leaked to candidates.

The tough CLP examination is compulsory for foreign law graduates from England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Australia and New Zealand to qualify as advocates and solicitors in Malaysia.

Previous examinations have a passing rate of no more than 30 percent.

Candidates are allowed to sit for the examination for up to four times in order to pass all the papers. If they fail any of these papers, they may take the supplementary tests.

Rais also said that the government would be looking at the CLP issue more critically following the debacle.

He said the government had in the past left the CLP in the hands of those who man the board in the firm belief that the professionals should deal with professional trials and tribulations.

However, he lamented that the legal profession had itself embroiled in its own trials and tribulations.

Act to defang

In his speech, Rais also said that the Legal Profession Act should not be the ultimate mechanism to govern the course of the profession in the country.

"It is essential therefore to realise that the act is not a blanket mechanism to create the power for all matters concerning legal training and education," Rais said.

"There are other outer and larger interests of legal education and training for which the government has a direct responsibility to cater for, " he added.

Rais said legal education as well as post-graduate practical training could possibly fall under the ambit of the proposed Law Academy.

The Law Academy was an idea mooted by Rais last year as a legal education body tasked with supplementing and enhancing legal education in Malaysia.

The 10,000-strong Bar Council has criticised the proposal as certain provisions under the Law Academy Bill were unclear and that it only allowed for one representative from the Bar Council.

Rais also suggested that the period of chambering for students be incorporated into university curriculum and that law students could also be attached to the Attorney-General's chambers to be trained in prosecution work