KOTA KINABALU (19 APRIL): Nine more trading license owners were fined by the Special Court on Corruption here on Tuesday for separate charges of abetting with a woman in submitting edited bank statements to bid for tenders by the state Education Department.
Erar Angsabung, Naimah Omopor, Amira Atirah, Darius Pengeran, Irwan Gintaun, Asrin Songorou, Sahadi Andawai, Tekenah Aring and Pulali Angsabung were each fined a total of RM15,000, in default, nine months’ jail after they pleaded guilty to their separate three charges.
The court fined each of the accused persons RM5,000, in default, three months’ imprisonment for each of their charges.
The nine accused persons aged between 25 and 53, admitted to abetting with Rita Pengeran in using the bank statements under the name of their companies with the real contents of the statements changed in order to win the tenders to supply cooked food to schools under the department in Sabah.
They committed the offences between 2015 and 2018 at the department’s office.
The facts of the cases stated that the accused persons had lent their licenses to Rita who allegedly did almost all the documentation to bid for the tenders.
It was also revealed that some of the accused persons were paid between RM1,000 and RM20,000 as license rental money.
Darius, who admitted he is Rita’s brother after the court inquired whether they are siblings, also admitted to the facts of the case that he was paid RM20,000 cash as rental money for lending his company’s license.
Rita, 31, had claimed trial on April 18 in the same court here to 50 counts of using bank statements which contained fake information to apply for tenders from the same department.
Counsel Datu Baginda Datu Laja, who represented the accused persons, prayed for non-custodial sentences to be imposed on his clients as this was their first offence.
The counsel also submitted that some of his clients are married and have kids. The women accused are only housewives and one of them is suffering from cancer.
In reply, the prosecution pressed for a heavier sentences on the grounds that this offence was rampant and by doing so, it will deny the right of the other people who are actually qualified for the tenders.
Meanwhile, two self-employed were fined a total of RM15,000, in default, nine months’ jail by the same court here for separate charges of using bank statements which contained edited information to bid for tenders by the same department.
Rosnah Lutok, 33, and Menly Masikar, 31, received RM5,000 fine each, in default, three months’ imprisonment for each of their three charges.
The duo had committed the offences at the department’s office between September 2 and 30, 2015.
Meanwhile, Emeylina Tanggauh, 32, and Faizal Mingin, 40, were each fined RM5,000, in default, three months’ jail for each of their three charges.
Their total fines were RM15,000.
Emeylina admitted to submit bank statements with edited contents in order to bid for tender to supply and deliver food items to the Kota Belud hospital for two years.
As for Faizal, he was also fined the same amount for abetting Emeylina.
Emeylina and Faizal admitted to committing the offences between May 26 and 29, 2017.
Rosnah and Menly were represented by Datu Baginda while Emeylina and Faizal were unrepresented.
It was learnt that all the accused persons paid their fines.