Two Anti-Drugs Agency assistant officers charged

Kota Kinabalu: Two Sabah National Anti-Drugs Agency (Nada) assistant officers were charged at the Special Corruption Court here Monday with submitting false claims four years ago.

Erwan Roslan, 41, and Panduan Paglin, 39, who were brought before Judge Abu Bakar Manat, were each charged with six counts of the offence.

They pleaded not guilty separately to committing the offence at the Sabah AADK office at Wisma San Hin, Wawasan Plaza here.

Erwan allegedly submitted falsified statements of domestic travel allowance claims with hotel receipts ranging between RM99 and RM345 for the months of February, March, April, July, August and September 2017 that totalled RM2,938.

He was accused of committing the offence between Feb 28, 2017 and Nov 29 the same year.

Meanwhile, Panduan was alleged to submitting falsified statements of domestic travel allowance claims with hotel receipts also ranging between RM99 and RM490 for the months of February, March, May, July, August and September 2017 that totalled RM3,443.

Panduan allegedly committed the offence between March 1, 2017 and Nov 29, the same year.

The charges against them stated that the statements contained false details namely the accommodation expenses in which the accused never stayed at the hotels as claimed.

The charges against Erwan and Panduan were each framed under Section 18 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009, punishable under Section 24(2) of the same Act which carries a maximum jail term of 20 years and a fine of five times the value of the offence committed, or RM10,000 whichever is higher on conviction.

The court set April 7 for pre-trial case management of Erwan’s and Panduan’s cases.

Erwan and Panduan were each released on a bail of RM10,000 with RM5,000 deposited in one surety for all charges with additional conditions that they were required to report to the MACC office twice a month and that their passports to be impounded by the court.

They were also ordered not to approach with any prosecution’s witnesses.

MACC prosecuting officer Rekhraj Singh prosecuted.

Erwan and Panduan were represented by counsel Jamadi Salleh.