Contractor helps MACC set trap for govt officer

PUTRAJAYA: Fed up with the constant demands for money from a senior officer in a government agency, a contractor put an end to it by reporting the matter to the authorities, but not after having paid RM248,000 over the past four years.

The problem started when the contractor applied – and won – a tender for a project worth RM31mil to build telecommunication towers in Terengganu and Kelantan in 2014.

Sources in the Malaysian AntiCorruption Commission (MACC) said the officer, who is a deputy director with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), had approached the contractor, claiming that he had helped him win the tender and demanded money.

“Since then, the officer would constantly contact the contractor for money. This has been going on since 2014.

“The contractor claimed to have already paid him RM248,000,” said a source familiar with the case.

The last straw was when the officer demanded RM270,000 from the contractor recently.

He went to MACC and with the help of the authorities, set up a trap to nab the 42-year-old man.

On Wednesday, the deputy director was arrested in a shopping mall at around 8pm after a sum of RM50,000 was allegedly handed over to him.

The officer and another man have been remanded for four days until Jan 13 as investigators probe allegations of bribery.

The role of the second man is not known, but the 43-year-old has stated his profession as a debt collector.

Magistrate Low When Zhen allowed an application by MACC to remand the two suspects.