Another 18 Penang JPJ officers to be charged with graft tomorrow, says MACC chief
GEORGE TOWN, July 23 — Another 18 low-ranking officers from the Road Transport Department (RTD) in Penang will be charged for graft tomorrow, said Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner Latheefa Koya.
The chief commissioner was on a work visit to Penang that coincided with the court cases involving a large number of RTD officers.
“Tomorrow, we will be charging six RTD officers in court to be followed by the rest on the next day,” she told a press conference at the MACC headquarters here today.
She confirmed that the officers to be charged were mostly low-level officers between the grades of 19 to 29.
The 18 to be charged were part of more than 70 RTD enforcement officers who were arrested for their involvement in a syndicate to protect lorry companies from facing enforcement actions by the department.
In May, eight RTD officials and one former Land and Public Transport Commission (SPAD) faced a total of 164 graft charges involving a total sum of RM136,010 at the Special Sessions Court for Corruption in Butterworth.
The nine civil servants, all based in Penang, were each slapped with between 11 and 33 charges for receiving bribes of between RM24,100 and RM4,210 each on separate occasions at various banks in Bukit Mertajam.
They allegedly accepted bribes between January 16, 2015 and August 20, 2018 from Ooi Cheng Keat, a director of Sam Lian Transport & Tyre Sdn Bhd and TSR Transport Sdn Bhd.
They were charged either under Section 165 of the Penal Code for obtaining any valuable thing without consideration from the person concerned in any proceeding or business transacted by the public servant or Section 16(a)(B) of the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission Act 2009 for soliciting a bribe.
Section 165 Penal Code provides for a jail term of up to two years, a fine or both while Section 16(a)(B) of the MACC Act 2009 provides a jail term of not more than 20 years and a fine of not less than five times of the amount of bribe received or RM10,000 whichever is higher.
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