KOTA KINABALU – The Sabah Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has detained 19 contractors over their alleged use of forged bank statements, reflecting a total amount of some RM49 million, to gain contracts with the Sabah Education Department.
According to a source, all the suspects, aged 24 to 53, were held at the Sabah MACC office here from about 10am today.
It is suspected that the alleged forged documents were submitted to the department as incentive for “rewards” should they win tenders for work involving several schools.
In confirming the arrests, Sabah MACC director Datuk S. Karunanithy said that the case is being investigated under Section 18 of the MACC Act 2009 and Section 471 of the Penal Code.
The former deals with the alleged offence of “intending to deceive principal by agent” and the latter with “using as genuine a forged document”.
He said the suspects consisting of 10 men and 9 women will be charged in a MACC special court here soon.
He added that in 2020, the Sabah MACC had detained 39 contractors believed to have operated through the same modus operandi, involving contracts that were worth over RM80 million in total value.
Following the arrests, a total of 132 charges had been imposed in a Sabah MACC special court last year.
“The MACC is taking this offence seriously; following the repeated cases with the similar offence, the Sabah MACC has been conducting several activities to curb such cases from happening again,” he said.
“Among the activities are explanation sessions to contractors through programmes such as an integrity seminar with contractors, which was conducted in collaboration with the Sabah Finance Ministry and the Sabah MACC on August 25, 2020,” he said in a statement today.
Sabah MACC had also conducted a programme titled “Anti-corruption Forum: Contractors’ Role in Curbing Corruption” on March 27 last year. The programme was jointly conducted by the Sabah MACC, Tawau Municipal Council and the Construction Industry Development Board.
Karunanithy warned contractors not to submit any fake documents to get government contracts as it is a very serious offence.
He also suggested that contractors’ associations take proactive action in reminding their members not to be involved in such a crime.
“The Sabah MACC will continue to work with contractors’ associations to educate and raise awareness among contractors so that they will not be involved in any wrongdoing, particularly one that involves corruption,” he said. – The Vibes, March 5, 2022
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