KOTA KINABALU: A pregnant woman pleaded guilty to six counts of abusing her position to obtain bribes at the Special Corruption Court, here.
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Hanidah Md Ja’afar, 44, however, requested an adjournment for her sentencing as she is 25 weeks pregnant.
Judge Abu Bakar Manat then fixed November 15 for the facts of the case and sentencing.
Meanwhile, her husband Ismail Tahir, 47, who is a teacher pleaded not guilty to two separate charges of abetting his wife. The court fixed the same date for re-mention of Ismail’s case.
All the charges against Hanidah stated that she had used her position as an Assistant Accountant at the State Education Department to commit the offences between September 18, 2014 and June 30, 2015 at Wisma Jabatan Pendidikan Negeri Sabah.
On the first count, Hanidah used her position to order an officer Mohd Farisiddy Frizam Ismail to change a claimant, Abdul Karim Abdul Rahman’s account number to Hanidah’s account number, so she would receive the payment. The claim dated April 15, 2014 amounted RM6,850.50.
On the second count, she had ordered another officer Mar Dewi Yuhana Leonard to change the account number of Syarikat Era Packing & Forwarding Sdn Bhd to an account number that belonged to Syarikat Saputri, a company registered under Roslee Tahir who is Hanidah’s brother-in law. The claim dated Sept 18, 2014 amounted to RM11,900.
On the third count, Hanidah ordered another officer Siti Samsiah Murad to change the account number of Syarikat Bumeria Cemerlang Freight Sdn Bhd to an account number that belonged to Saujana Mega Enterprise which was registered under Dayang Nazibah Asbah who is Hanidah’s niece. The claim dated Sept 23, 2014 amounted to RM8,900.
On the fourth count, Hanidah had changed the account number of Syarikat Speedcast Malaysia Sdn Bhd which claimed about RM5,003.29 dated Dec 31, 2011, to an account number that belonged to Syarikat NZ Enterprise. Syarikat NZ was registered under Md Nor Nazri Asbah who is Hanidah’s nephew and Hanidah received RM1,000 from her actions.
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On the fifth and sixth counts, Hanidah ordered Siti Samsiah again to change the account number of Syarikat Speedcast Malaysia Sdn Bhd to an account number that belonged to Syarikat Saputri which was registered under the name Roslee Tahir who is Hanidah’s brother-in law.
Syarikat Speedcast made a RM39,468 claim dated Aug 31, 2012, and a RM46,644 claim dated June 30, 2012, respectively.
The charges of the fifth and sixth count stated that due to Hanidah’s action, her husband Ismail Tahir received the payment of the said claims.
Hanidah was charged under Section 23(1) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009 and punishable under Section 24(1) of the Act which provides for a jail term of up to 20 years, and a fine of not less than five times the amount involved or RM10,000, whichever is higher.
For Ismail, he faced two charges of abetting Hanidah in changing the account number of Syarikat Speedcast Malaysia Sdn Bhd to an account number that belonged to Syarikat Saputri which was registered under the name Roslee Tahir who is his brother.
Ismail allegedly committed the offence on Oct 17, 2014 between 8am and 5pm at the Wisma Pendidikan Negeri Sabah here.
Ismail was charged under Section 28(1)(b) of the MACC Act 2009, to be read together with Section 23(1) of the same Act, which is also punishable under Section 24(1) of the same Act.
Earlier, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Deputy Public Prosecutor Nartiah F. Mirchelle Sambatan objected for an adjournment saying among others that this case has been adjourned several times before.
During their previous hearing, the couple were released on bail pending the disposal of their case.-NST