Kota Kinabalu: Two former directors of government agencies – Sabah National Anti-Drugs Agency (AADK) and Industrial Development and Research department (DIDR) – were in the Sessions Court Thursday on separate alleged corruption charges.
The Deputy Director of the Sabah State Economic Planning Unit pleaded not guilty to charges of abetting 20 civil servants under him to receive valuable items estimated worth RM100,000.
Tseu Kei Yui, who was formerly Director of the Industrial Development and Research Department (DIDR), faced three charges involving Tawau, two Sandakan and the rest Kota Kinabalu.
On the first, Tseu is accused of abetting the staff to receive valuable items from several companies believed having dealings related to the department’s official work in 2023 and 2024 at several bank branches in Tawau, Sandakan and Kota Kinabalu.
The charges stated they included smartphones, gadgets, tablets, musical instruments, gym equipment and others amounting to some RM100,000.
Tseu was charged under Section 109 of the Penal Code, punishable under Section 165 of the same Code, which provides for a jail term of up to two years, a fine, or both upon conviction.
The court released Tseu on RM30,000 bail with RM10,000 to be deposited and his wife as surety, and set April 24 for pre-trial case management.
He was also ordered to report to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) once every two months, not to tamper with prosecution witnesses, and to surrender his international passport to the court until disposal of the case.
The court also allowed the prosecution’s application for all the cases to be consolidated and heard in Kota Kinabalu.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Rustam Sanip proposed bail of RM50,000 with RM20,000 to be deposited with one local surety, along with several additional conditions.
However, counsel Bartholomew Jingulam requested it be reduced, saying his client is still serving as a government servant.
Meanwhile, Bakri Bibi, 53, pleaded not guilty before Judge Elsie Primus to six counts of using fake documents to obtain payments for various AADK programmes in Tawau and Kunak involving RM19,440. They were:
- Using a fake document under the name of Syarikat Yazied Photostate Centre to obtain payment of RM2,700 for food and beverage services for the Community Activation programme in Kunak on Aug 13, 2018;
- Seeking payment of RM2,500 for food and beverage services for the Khidmat Masyarakat programme, also in Kunak, on Aug. 29, 2018.
- Seeking payment of RM4,500 for food and beverage services for the Drug Awareness programme, also in Kunak, on March 29, 2019.
- Seeking payment of RM2,500 for food and beverage services for the Skuad AADK Tawau Hiking Bukit Lim Man Kui programme on March 30, 2019.
- Seeking payment of RM2,620 for the supply of building materials for a community gotong-royong in Tawau on April 14, 2019.
- Seeking payment of RM2,620 for the supply of building materials for a community gotong-royong in Tawau on April 16, 2019.
The offences, under Section 471 read together with Section 468 of the Penal Code and further read with Section 34 of the same Code, carry a jail term of up to seven years and a fine upon conviction.
Bakri was charged with 14 counts of using fake documents to obtain payments for AADK programmes last year. The court allowed Bakri to remain on the previous bail with the same conditions and set April 27 for pre-trial case management.
