Kota Kinabalu: The Special Corruption Court on Monday heard that a former Sabah Water Department Deputy Director received bribes amounting to RM31,025,495.11 for 10 years from 2005 to 2015.
Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officer Mohd Yussof Awang Osman, 45, in his witness statement, stated that based on the investigation of Teo Chee Kong (the Kota Kinabalu divisional water engineer at that time) and the supporting documents that were seized, Lim Lam Beng received bribes amounting to RM31,025,495.11 for the period which involved allocations amounting to RM2,068,366,340.70.
Yussof, who is the prosecution’s 45th witness, was testifying in the trial of former State Water Department Director Ag Mohd Tahir Ag Mohd Talib, 58, his wife Fauziah Piut, 55, who were jointly charged with Lim, 66, on 37 counts of money laundering 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.
Earlier, the witness stated that it was found, based on the investigation against Teo and the supporting document (the HQ list table seized from Teo Chee Kong), that Lim had received bribe money handed over and recorded by Teo in a document titled the HQ List table.
The witness said Teo had recorded the payment of bribe money received based on the job code which is TPJA referring to the Deputy Director of the Water Department.
Meanwhile, the court recorded Lim’s counsel’s application for their objection to be recorded on several paragraphs of Yussof’s witness statement, as well as his answers to several prosecution questions on several grounds, among others, that the said evidence was the investigation officer’s opinion and the opinion amounts to hearsay evidence.
On several additional questions by the prosecution, Yussof informed Judge Abu Bakar Manat that Operation “Ops Water” was based on two complaints, namely a complaint against the Director, Ag Mohd Tahir, who is said to have received a bribe from a Mazda vehicle from the Lahad Datu Water Supply company, which is the operator of the Timbangan and Sepagaya dams, and a complaint against Teo, who is said to have received a bribe of RM200,000 from a company that is the contractor of the Telibong dam.
Yussof said he has been appointed the investigating officer (IO) for a complaint related to Teo, who is said to have been involved in money laundering activities through accepting bribes involving projects in the State Water Department.
“After being appointed IO, I made a plan of action for the investigation and then obtained the documents seized from Teo and studied the outcome of the investigation against him,” said the witness, adding Teo was arrested on Oct 4, 2016 and was remanded for 14 days from Oct 5 the same year.
Yussof said as a result of his study of the documents obtained from Team 10 who handled Teo, he found the most revealing document related to the “Ops Water” investigation was the HQ List table, including the computer seized from Teo.
“I found that based on the investigation carried out on the HQ List document and the outcome of the investigation on Teo, this document is a schedule of payments to certain positions in the State Water Department and external agencies.
“I found the word ‘TPJA’ which refers to Timbalan Pengarah Jabatan Air (Deputy Director of the Water Department).
“My investigations revealed that the HQ List table was prepared from 2005 to 2016.
“My investigation on Teo found that from 2005 to 2015, the TPJA during that period was Lim,” said Yussof.
To a question on whether he investigated the other column in the HQ List, Yussof said he only investigated those related to the State Water Department.
“Any other sections found in the HQ List that are related to the State Water Department are included in the scope of my investigation. While other sections that have nothing to do with the State Water Department are not included in the scope of my investigation,” said Yussof.
Yussof said the unrelated column in the HQ List he meant was the column with the words “KPI” and “MOF”.
He said he knew the column had nothing to do with the State Water Department because the results of his investigation found that “KPI” refers to the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and “MOF” refers to the Sabah Ministry of Finance.
He knows the full name of the abbreviation as a result of the investigation on Teo.
To a question regarding the seizure of cash amounting to RM2,380,000 from Lim in three documents to the MACC office on Oct 22, 2016, Nov 7, 2016 and Nov 8, 2016, Yussof said he did investigate the source of the money.
“The investigation into the seized money found that Lim was unable to provide complete information on the source of the money,” said the witness, adding he did not receive any documents regarding the source of the money from his investigation.
Deputy Public Prosecutors Mahadi Abdul Jumaat, Prakash Somiah and Zander Lim appeared for the prosecution while counsel Priskila Akwila Sinem represented Ag Mohd Tahir and Fauziah, who represented Ag Mohd Tahir and Fauziah.
Tan represented Lim with counsel Datuk Tan Hock Chuan, Baldev Singh, Karpaljit Singh, Kelvin Wong and Aaron Lau.
Trial continues.
