Remand for ‘datuk’, PUZ employee extended
GEORGE TOWN: A remand order on a 50year-old Penang Tithe Management (PUZ) high-ranking officer and one of his staff has been extended for four days.
Magistrate Mohamed Amin Shahul Hamid yesterday allowed the extension until Thursday.
Both were brought to the Penang Court Complex handcuffed at about 2.15pm.
Continuing their probe into the PUZ scandal, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) arrested three more PUZ officers, aged between 33 and 49, at about 4.30pm yesterday at the PUZ office, Bernama reported.
“The MACC also summoned three other PUZ officers and two individuals, a businessman and a contractor, to record their statements,” Penang MACC director Datuk Abd Aziz Aban said in a statement.
Meanwhile, three contractors were released yesterday on a RM5,000 MACC bond each after their remand order ended.
On Saturday, four out of eight contractors who were detained by MACC in connection with the scandal were released on a RM5,000 MACC bond each.
On Sunday, another contractor was released on a RM5,000 bond while two PUZ officers were freed on a RM10,000 bond each.
Last week, the high-ranking officer and three of his officers were detained by MACC to facilitate investigations.
The eight contractors were also detained along with them in an operation dubbed “Ops Miskin”.
The PUZ officers are alleged to have accepted valuable items, cheques and cash from the contractors as incentives to award them projects or work-related programmes.
The high ranking PUZ officer, who has a “datuk” title, is believed to have also helped himself to education aid and scholarships for his child, without the consent of the Penang Islamic Affairs Department.