KOTA KINABALU: A former project manager has been charged with three counts of using forged documents to claim payments amounting to RM46.8mil for a road construction project here.
Victor Voo Chung Sain, 51, pleaded not guilty before Special Corruption Court judge Jason Juga on Friday (March 7) to all charges related to falsified claims submitted to the Sabah Public Works Department (JKR).
The charges fall under Section 471 of the Penal Code, which carries a sentence of up to seven years' imprisonment and a fine upon conviction under Section 468.
Voo, who was a project manager at Azam Jaya Sdn Bhd at the time, is accused of falsifying multiple documents for payments linked to the project "Pembinaan Projek Persimpangan Bertingkat dan Lorong Ketiga di Bandaraya Kota Kinabalu, Sabah (Persimpangan (i) Jalan Lintas/Jalan Kolam (ii) Jalan Tuaran Batu 5 ½)".
The first charge involves a falsified billed items document dated Dec 30, 2016, used to claim an interim payment of RM394,915.56.
The second charge relates to another billed items document, dated July 31, 2017, used to claim RM425,293.68.
For the third charge, Voo is accused of submitting a site measurement document dated April 24, 2018, containing a forged signature, for the same project with a total contract value of RM46,028,504.04.
The alleged offences took place at the Sabah JKR office between December 2016 and April 2018.
The court set April 14 for case management.
Voo was granted RM15,000 bail with an RM8,000 deposit and one local surety. He posted bail.
He was also ordered to report to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) every two months, surrender his passport, and refrain from contacting prosecution witnesses.
DPP Rekhraj Singh prosecuted the case, while Voo was represented by Datuk Ram Singh and Prem Elmer Ganasan.
Earlier, the prosecution proposed bail at RM15,000 with a RM10,000 deposit, while the defence argued for a lower amount of RM2,000, citing that Voo is currently employed as an engineer at another company.
