Engineer, woman charged with receiving RM90,000 in bribes

KUALA LUMPUR, June 28 — A Public Works Department (PWD) engineer and a woman were charged at the Sessions Court here today on two counts of receiving RM90,000 in bribes relating to the propsed appointment of a company as a subcontractor for a road project in Gua Musang two years ago.

Under the first and second charge, Izwan Mashuri, 39, and Norsiah Mohd Anuar, 30, allegedly received RM90,000 in bribes for themselves in return for proposing Syarikat Lega Kiara Enterprise to be appointed as a subcontractor to Pintas Utama Sdn Bhd for two road projects in Gua Musang, worth RM2,144,822 and RM1,280,562 at a hotel room in Jalan Putra, Chow Kit here between 7 pm and 9 pm on Dec 30, 2020.

The charges under Section 16(a)(A) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009 was read together with Section 34 of the Penal Code.

Izwan and Norsiah pleaded not guilty to the charges read in front of Judge Rozina Ayob.

Deputy public prosecutor Nor Diana Nor Azwa offered bail of RM30,000 with one surety for each of the accused with the additional condition that they surrender their passports to the court and report in at MACC offices every month.

Mohd Azali Ibrahim, Izwan’s counsel, requested that bail be lowered, while Norsiah, who was unrepresented, also requested lower bail as she has to support a child.

The court subsequently allowed Izwan and Norsiah bail of RM10,000 and RM5,000 respectively with one surety on the conditions mentioned previously and set Aug 8 for further mention.

Also, Izwan pleaded not guilty in front of Sessions Court judge Suzana Hussin to three counts of bribery related to the appointment of the same company as subcontractor for two projects.

For the first charge, Izwan allegedly sought a bribe of seven per cent of the slope maintenance projects issued by Pintas Utama Sdn Bhd from the same individual in return for him proposing the appointment of the company as a subcontractor to Pintas Utama for the project at the same location under Section 16(a)(A) of the MACC Act 2009.

For the second and third charge, he is accused of receiving RM100,000 and RM 30,000 in bribes from the same individual in return for his proposing the same company as subcontractor to Pintas Utama for two road projects in Gua Musang on July 23, 2020 and Feb 10 this year at the same location.

The court set bail at RM25,000 with one surety for all three charges and set Aug 8 for case mention. — Bernama