Company director claims trial to cheating Perkeso over Penjana Kerjaya programme

KUCHING (Dec 1): A director of a company claimed trial at the Sessions Court here today to cheating Social Security Organisation (Perkeso) agents by dishonestly inducing them to approve names for their Hiring Incentive Programme.

Nawawi Ibrahim, 70, pleaded not guilty before Judge Steve Ritikos to a charge framed under Section 415 of the Penal Code, which is punishable under Section 417 of the same Code and read together with Section 34 of the same Code.

The Section provides for an imprisonment term up to five years, a fine, or both, upon conviction.

Steve released the accused on RM20,000-bail with two local sureties, and fixed Jan 12 next year for further mention.

The accused allegedly committed the offence with his daughter Norulhuda Nawawi, 39, at Wisma Perkeso at Travillion Commercial Centre, Jalan Padungan here between Sept 22, 2020 and Jan 28, 2021.

According to the facts of the case, both accused with common intention had dishonestly induced two agents of Perkeso Kuching to approve the 31 employee names listed in the Data Penjana Kerjaya 1.0 for the Hiring Incentive Programme in the name of their company.

This had encouraged Perkeso to award RM178,200 into Huda Enterprise’s bank account belonging to the company.

No plea was taken from Norulhuda, and Steve ordered her to be referred to Sentosa Hospital for psychiatric assessment.

Earlier, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) deputy public prosecutor Nur Nisla Abdul Latif applied for Norulhuda to be sent to the hospital to allow her to undergo the assessment as she was said to have a mental disorder.

Nawawi was also charged with committing similar offence between Sept 21, 2020 and Jan 14, 2021, involving the channelling of money amounting to RM177,200 into his company.

The money that Perkeso had channelled into the company’s bank account was intended for the 31 employees listed in the Data Penjana Kerjaya 1.0 for the Hiring Incentive Programme.

Both Nawawi and Norulhuda were not represented by a counsel.