RM55k bribes: Deputy Director claims trial
Published on: Tuesday, June 21, 2022
By: Cynthia D Baga
Mahriyatty and Syarafi
Kota Kinabalu: A Deputy Director of Sabah Contractor Service Centre was charged with 46 counts of bribery-related offences involving a sum of RM55,020.Mahriyatty Ag Bahrin, 42, pleaded not guilty before Sessions Court Judge Abu Bakar Manat, to all the charges against her on Monday.ADVERTISEMENT
The charges against Mahriyatty, among others, stated that she allegedly asked and accepted bribes from contractors, used her position to get bribes and submitted false claims relating to CIDB certificates, Bumiputera Status certificates (STB) and contractor certificates for several companies.
Mahriyatty allegedly committed the offences in 2019 and 2021 in Sipitang, Karamunsing and at the Sabah Contractor Service Centre office here.
She has four counts under Section 16(a)(B) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act for asking bribes, 19 counts under Section 17(a) of MACC Act for accepting bribes, 21 counts under Section 165 of the Penal Code for obtaining any valuable thing, without consideration, from person(s) in any proceeding or business transacted by such public servants, one count under Section 23(1) of the MACC Act for using her position to get bribes and one count under Section 18 of the MACC Act for submitting false claims.
The court set July 21 for mention and Mahriyatty was released on a bail of RM25,000 with RM10,000 deposited in a local surety and report to MACC’s office once in two months as well as her passport, if any, to be impounded by the court.
ADVERTISEMENT
Mahriyatty was warned not to tamper with the prosecution witnesses.
Earlier, Deputy Public Prosecutor Nurul Izzati Sapifee from MACC offered bail of RM25,000 for all charges in a local surety with several additional conditions.
ADVERTISEMENT
However, counsel Zahir Shah who defended Mahriyatty applied for the bail sum to be reduced saying that his client is still working with the centre and that she was not a flight risk as she is a local from Sipitang.
Zahir further told the court that his client has five children to look after.
In the same court, a cook claimed trial to four counts of accepting bribes of RM4,300.
On the first to fourth counts, Syarafi Syahir Kasan, 31, is accused of receiving the bribes which had been banked into his account, as rewards to help contractors to get CIDB and contractors certificates.
The crime allegedly took place between July 24 and Nov 11, 2020 at the Maybank in Sipitang branch.
His case would be re-mentioned on July 21 and the court offered RM5,000 with RM3,000 deposited in a local surety to Syarafi.
He was also ordered to report to MACC’s office once in two months and passport to be kept by the court until the disposal of his case.
Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
Daily Express Malaysia
