BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Feb 22 (Birbeo Bulletin/ANN): A government clerk was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment by the Intermediate Court on Saturday (Feb 20), for forging Department of Electrical Services’ (DES) documents.
Despite Haji Alias bin Haji Md Ali’s instant guilty pleas, Judge Pengiran Hajah Norismayanti binti Pengiran Haji Ismail noticed his lack of remorse and took a deterrent stance on deciding the sentence.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Pengiran Hajah Nor ‘Azmeena binti Pengiran Haji Mohiddin’s facts of the case state that the defendant was a clerk at the DES Registration Unit.
The felonies were unearthed on September 12, 2018, when the defendant was on leave and contractors called the DES Head of Technical Assistance, asking for the status of pending work passes.
The officer checked the database and found that the contractors had not been registered. This led to the discovery of work pass copies in the defendant’s work desk, which appeared suspicious.
The officer also found that the contractors were otherwise registered with the Registration of Contractor Division at the Ministry of Development (MoD). An internal investigation followed, which found that various documents had been forged. A police report was filed.
On the defendant’s return to work, he was confronted.
He admitted to having forged the signatures of the DES Head of Registration and the DES Head of Corporate Planning and Services between 2017 and 2018.
The forged documents were issued to companies, which made payments for their applications of work passes.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Affyian bin Abdul Rahman stood in for the Public Prosecutor on Saturday. - Borneo Buletin/ANN