Company owner, employee charged with submitting false claim for Penjana programme

KUALA TERENGGANU - A company owner and one of his employees pleaded not guilty in the Sessions Court here today to charges of submitting false documents to the Social Security Organisation (Socso) to claim incentives under the Penjana Kerjaya 2.0 (Penjana) programme amounting to RM126,100 two years ago.

Proprietor Arrie Syahiman Mohd Zain, 33, and the employee, Nurul Azwani Mohd Razali, 37, made the plea before Judge Norashima Khalid.

They were each charged with three counts under Section 18 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009 for submitting the Employee Verification Form under the programme containing false details to a Socso official to claim an incentive of RM126,100 under the Panjana programme.

They were charged with committing the offence at the Socso office in Kuala Terengganu in June and July 2021.

They faced imprisonment for up to 20 years and a fine of not less than five times the value of the false information or RM10,000 whichever is higher, if convicted.

The two accused also pleaded not guilty to three alternative charges under Section 471 of the Penal Code of using false documents as genuine and faced imprisonment for up to two years, or a fine or both, upon conviction.

The court allowed both accused bail of RM15,000 with one surety each and set Nov 28 for mention.

They are also ordered to surrender their passports to the court and report themselves at the MACC office every month, as well as to intimidate witnesses in the case.

The prosecution was handled by MACC Deputy Public Prosecutor Mariah Omar, while Nurul Azwani was represented by lawyer Mohd Hayyatudin Muhammad. Arrie Syahiman was unrepresented. - BERNAMA