Kota Kinabalu: The Special Corruption Court was told on Wednesday that documents, money, jewellery and computers suspected to be related to the Ops Water case investigation were seized from the house of former Sabah Water Deputy Director Teo Chee Kong seven years ago.
MACC officer Raja Hamidah Raja Omar, 38, testified that she was assigned to assist Team 10 to carry out a search operation at the house of Teo to detect evidence of corruptions suspected to have been committed by him related to the acquisition of projects at the State Water Department.
Hamidah said the operation was called ‘Ops Water’ which was carried out on Oct 4, 2016 for investigative actions under the MACC Act 2009 that were suspected to have been carried out by the Director and Deputy Director of the State Water Department.
She said during the search process at Teo’s house in Jalan Lintas, Teo was instructed to be present and lead the way throughout the process.
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Hamidah said among the documents seized was a table document titled HQ List while two computers seized namely an Acer Aspire Z5610 and an Acer Aspire laptop, which were found in the reading room on the first floor of Teo’s house.
She confirmed to the court that she had prepared the movable property confiscation list forms for the documents and computers.
Testifying further, Hamidah said that three days later on Oct 7, the team seized an Acer computer used by Teo to prepare the HQ List table found in a room on the first floor of his house and that she also confirmed preparing a movable property confiscation list form for the said computer.
On trial were former State Water director Ag Mohd Tahir Ag Mohd Talib, 58, his wife Fauziah Piut, 55, who were jointly charged with former State Water deputy director Lim Lam Beng, 66, 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.
They had on Dec 29, 2016 pleaded not guilty to the charges.
During cross-examination by counsel Priskila Akwila Sinem, who is representing Ag Mohd Tahir and Fauziah, the witness testified that she did not remember the amount of money found in the room on the first floor of Teo’s house during the search.
The witness said she did not remember whether there were any pictures taken when the money was counted in the living room of Teo’s house.
Meanwhile, the prosecution’s 36th witness, former Beaufort division water engineer, Suhaimi Asbullah, who was recalled for cross-examination by the accused’s counsel, agreed with counsel Datuk Tan Hock Chuan, who referred him to a High Court document that the investigation officer Westmoreland did not state in his affidavit that Teo had discussed with Lim Lam Beng regarding the 27.5 per cent collection formula from contractors as stated in his witness statement.
Suhaimi, who is the current Sabah Water Department director, agreed to Tan’s suggestion on what was stated by Westmoreland that the 27.5 per cent formula was set by Teo and agreed to by the Director of the Sabah Water Department.
Deputy Public Prosecutors Zander Lim and Mahadi Abdul Jumaat appeared for the prosecution.
Ag Tahir and his wife were also represented by counsel Mohamed Fareeez Mohamed Salleh, while together with Tan was counsel Baldev Singh and Karpaljit Singh, Kelvin Wong and Aaron Lau. Trial continues.
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