KUALA LUMPUR: A lecturer at a community college pleaded not guilty in the sessions court here today on four counts of submitting false documents pertaining to the 1Malaysia Skills and Employability Programme (SKK1M) involving a total of RM165,834 in 2013.
Mohd Faisal Ishak, 57, made the plea before judge Azura Alwi.
On all charges, the accused was the college’s former director of the Industrial Relations, Graduate and Alumni Verification division, allegedly abetting Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Samad by giving invoice documents to four companies dated Nov 25, 2013, amounting to RM165,834 which were fakes in relation to four SKK1M programmes that were not carried out by the companies.
The four companies were Moca Resources Sdn Bhd (Painting and Blasting programme), Alfah Synergy Sdn Bhd (Structured Internship Programme), Occupational Safety and Health Sdn Bhd (Site Safety Supervisor Structured Internship Programme) and Iskandar Vocational and Technical Academy Sdn Bhd (Strategic Collaboration Community College and Industrial programme - Telecommunications Technician).
All the false invoice documents were given to an agent, namely Faizal Yusoff who was the assistant in the Industrial Relations, Graduate and Alumni Verification division from the same college at the Community College Education Department in the Federal Territory of Putrajaya.
The offences were allegedly committed at the headquarters of Community College Education, 7th Floor, Galeria PJH Jalan P4W Putrajaya on Nov 25, 2013.
All the charges were filed under Section 28 (1) (c) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009 read together with Section 18 of the same Act and punishable under Section 24 (2) of the same Act.
It provides for a maximum jail term of 20 years and a fine of not less than five times the false value or RM10,000 or whichever is higher, upon conviction.
Earlier, deputy public prosecutor Muhammad Ashraf Mohamed offered a total bail of RM80,000 for all four charges and surrender his passport to the court.
However, the accused, represented by lawyer Abdul Hakeem Aiman, requested the amount of the bail to be reduced on the grounds that the accused had a high commitment and had health problems of gout and hypertension.
“The accused is still a lecturer at the community college and teaches English and during the investigation, the accused gave good cooperation to the authorities,” he said.
Azura then allowed the accused bail of RM50,000 with one surety and ordered him to surrender his passport to the court and fixed May 24 for remention of the case.
In the Sessions Court, before Judge Rozina Ayob, Ahmad Fauzi, 47, pleaded not guilty to four counts of giving invoices containing false details to the same agent (Faizal) on similar matters involving the same amount.
According to the first to the fourth count, Ahmad Fauzi was alleged to give the four invoices to Faizal but the programmes were not executed by the four companies.
All the offences were allegedly committed at the same place and date and under the same charge accordingly.
The court allowed the accused a bail of RM40,000 with two sureties and set the same date for remention. — Bernama
