Kota Kinabalu: A prosecution witness in the corruption trial of former State Water Department (JANS) senior officers and one of their wives said the former deputy director was not charged with receiving RM31 million in bribes.
Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officer Mohd Yussof Awang Osman, who was the investigating officer appointed in the case of former JANS Deputy Director Lim Lam Beng, said it was true that Lim was not charged with receiving the bribes.
He said this to a question by Lim’s counsel Datuk Tan Hock Chuan during cross-examination, Tuesday.
To another question, Yussof disagreed with the counsel that the four charges against Lim were not for the period from 2005 to 2015 as stated in the HQ List table.
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Lim, 69, is facing four counts of having a Land Cruiser vehicle, cash of RM200,000, RM1,900,000 and RM280,000 from proceeds of unlawful activities on Oct 13, Oct 22, Nov 7 and Nov 8, here, in 2016.
He was jointly tried with former JANS Director Ag Mohd Tahir Mohd Talib, 61, and the latter’s wife Fauziah Piut, 58, on 37 counts of money laundering charges, involving cash and bank savings amounting to RM61.57 million, as well as unlawful possession of luxury goods.
Ag Mohd Tahir faces 11 charges while Fauziah faces 19 charges under Section 4(1)(b) of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act (AMLATFPUA) 2001.
Fauziah has another two joint charges with Ag Mohd Tahir under Section 4(1)(b) of the same Act and Ag Mohd Tahir also has one charge under Section 4(1)(a) of the same Act.
The offences against Ag Mohd Tahir and Fauziah were allegedly committed between Oct 4, 2016 and Nov 4, the same year.
The three had, on Dec 29, 2016, pleaded not guilty to the charges.
To a question, Yussof said he did not know around October 2016 that the balance in Lim’s bank account was RM228,105.33 and that he only knew about the balance after that.
To a question, the witness said Lim decided to set the amount of RM200,000 to be handed over to MACC.
The witness agreed with the counsel’s suggestion that it does not make sense for an individual to surrender money to MACC without reason.
The witness disagreed with the counsel’s suggestion that since MACC did not find any cash whatsoever in the house, office and car or on Lim’s body, MACC directed him to withdraw cash and handed it over to MACC.
The witness also disagreed with the counsel’s suggestion that he conveyed to Lim that if he handed over cash to MACC to show his cooperation, no action would be taken against him.
Counsel: Can you confirm during that time in October and November (2016) there were many engineers arrested for investigation who surrendered their properties to MACC but no action was taken against them?
Witness: There is action against them.
Counsel: They, district engineers are not charged in court.
Witness: Agree.
Meanwhile, Yussof, in his witness statement, stated during the examination-in-chief earlier that based on the investigation conducted against the witnesses as well as the supporting documents, there was evidence that Lim as a civil servant with the position of engineer and was appointed as the Deputy Director of JANS for the period 2005 to 2015 allegedly committed an offence under Section 165 of the Penal Code.
Yussof stated that Lim, through Teo Chee Kong (the Kota Kinabalu divisional water engineer at that time), allegedly received bribes amounting to RM31,025,495.11 during that period without any return from contractors who obtained work at JANS around Sabah.
Lim also knew that the contractors had an official working relationship with him as Deputy Director of JANS, stated the witness.
Yussof added that there was also an offence of money laundering under Section 4(1)(b) of the AMLATFPUA committed for owning RM2.38 million and a Toyota Land Cruiser as a result of illegal activities, namely from a scheme to collect bribes from contractors who carry out work at JANS which was an illegal activity, for which Lim has received RM31,025,495.11 in cash.
The witness also stated that investigations found that a RM1,813,339,550 allocation had been used for the operational and maintenance expenses of the water supply in Sabah between 2005 and 2016.
The witness stated that Ag Mohd Tahir allegedly signed the authorised letters to use the allocations from 2005 to 2016.
The witness further stated that investigations also revealed that 8,387 approval letters were signed by the director involving a total of RM2,381,644,505.38, which refers to spending after deducting emolument, administration and utility expenses.
Deputy Public Prosecutors Mahadi Abdul Jumaat, Prakash Somiah and Zander Lim for the prosecution, while counsel Priskila Akwila Sinem represented Ag Mohd Tahir and Fauziah.
Lim was also represented by counsel Baldev Singh, Karpaljit Singh, Kelvin Wong and Aaron Lau.
Trial continues.
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