In Vietnam, it means that Nguyen Ngoc An, director of the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, will lose edges in his career promotion.
The inspectors made the move after An was suspected of dishonestly earning a doctorate degree from the US-owned Southern Pacific University.
Media reports in June raised questions about the quality of the university, which was ordered to halt its operations in 2003 after being found to have violated higher education regulations by Hawaiian education authorities.
Some online reports suggested that SPU has since shifted its base of operations to Malaysia.
But, in its latest conclusion, the Phu Tho Inspectorate Commission said SPU was established legally in the state of Delaware, citing the confirmations from Vietnamese Embassy in San Francisco and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, according to Vietnamnet.
The school, where An studied and defended his doctorate thesis between December 2008 and September 2009, has been operating legally, it stressed.
SPU, however, isn’t famous and doesn’t have close cooperation with professional associations, inspectors said, adding that the university is majored in training Asian students who can’t study in US, the news source quoted inspectors as saying.
In an interview with local newspaper Saigon Tiep Thi, Bui Minh Chau, chief of the commission, said his agency hasn’t authorities to assess the quality of An’s diploma, but confirm if SPU is operating in US or not.
While all the expenses and tuition fees were paid by An, who told the press that he had spent US$17,000 on the course, the official had failed to frequently report his studying results to his superiors, they said.
In July, Nguyen Van Ngoc, deputy chief of the Party Unit of the northern province of Yen Bai, was also probed following accusations that he had dubiously earned doctorate degree from SPU.
A district Party official was stabbed to death and two women were seriously injured in a grizzly murder plot that unfolded early this week in Ho Chi Minh City.