Another individual has been apprehended for his involvement in a network implicated in approving driving licenses without mandatory tests in Kota Kinabalu, which implicates enforcement officers. The suspect, a foreigner in his 40s, was taken into custody at the Lahad Datu Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) office on Tuesday (Nov 21) at 4pm.
A seven-day remand order starting Wednesday (Nov 22) was issued by Magistrate Ryan Sagiran Rayner Junior after the MACC submitted an application. A source indicated that between 2021 and 2022, the suspect purportedly paid bribes to enforcement officers in exchange for the issuance of driving licenses to applicants without them needing to go through the required tests.
According to the source, the suspect’s modus operandi involved collecting anywhere from RM400 to RM1,200 from each applicant before passing the money on to enforcement officers for the issuance of driving licenses of various classes.
Director of Sabah MACC, Datuk S Karunanithy, confirmed the arrest and mentioned that the suspect is being investigated under Section 17(a) of the MACC Act 2009. On Monday (Nov 20), four enforcement officers were apprehended for accepting around RM300,000 in exchange for approving the licenses without the mandatory driving tests. The suspects are men in their 30s and are believed to have taken the bribes between 2021 and 2022.
The illegal activities of the group are estimated to have cost the government approximately RM1.5 million in losses.
