KUANTAN, June 29 — A married couple was charged separately at the Sessions Court here today, with corruption related to the leakage of Pengurusan Air Pahang Berhad (PAIP) tender information, five years ago.

The accused Rosman Mohad Basir, 40, who is an assistant procurement officer at PAIP pleaded not guilty in front of Judge Mohd Ghazali Mohamad Taib to 10 charges of receiving bribes amounting to RM105,000.

Rosman who hails from Raub, near here, is alleged to have received the bribe between September 2015 and December 2018 from two businesspeople in the district or put into three bank accounts related to him.

The bribe involving transactions valued at between RM1,000 and RM40,000, was allegedly payment for providing details of the work such as the scope of the project and details of the price of labour to the business people who wanted to bid for the PAIP tender.

For the offence, the accused was charged under Section 16 (a) (A) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009 and punishable under Section 24 of the same Act which provides for a maximum jail term of 20 years and a fine of not less than five times the amount of the gratification, or RM10,000 whichever is higher, upon conviction.

Counsel Zulkifli Yong appealed for the bail of RM50,000 with one surety offered by the prosecution to be reduced on the grounds that the accused had given full cooperation throughout the investigation.

Mohd Ghazali set bail at RM20,000 with one surety and with the additional condition that the accused must report to the Kuantan MACC office every month.

In the same court, Rosman’s wife, Marina Muhammad, 45, who is a lawyer pleaded not guilty to five counts of allegedly abetting to receive RM51,000 between June 9, 2017 and Sept 28, 2018 via her Maybank bank account, Setapak branch, Kuala Lumpur and Affin Bank Bhd account, Kuantan Branch belonging to her law firm.

The charges against her were under Section 28 (1) (c) of the MACC Act 2009 read together with Section 16 (a) (A) of the same act and punishable under Section 24 of the same Act.

Mohd Ghazali allowed Marina bail of RM10,000 with one surety and an additional condition to report to the Kuantan MACC office every month.

He set July 23 for the re-mention of both cases.

MACC deputy public prosecutor Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin appeared for the prosecution. — Bernama