KOTA KINABALU (Sept 3): A civil servant was jailed for one year and received a hefty fine from a Sessions Court here on Wednesday for two charges of abusing her power over food supply tender.
In his reserved decision, judge Jason Juga imposed the sentence on Monica Gualin, 52, after finding her guilty of both her charges on Wednesday.
On the first to the second counts, Monica was sentenced to six months’ jail and fined RM75,000, in default, eight months’ jail and RM174,900 fine, in default, 24 months’ imprisonment respectively.
The court ordered Monica to serve her jail terms concurrently.
Monica, an Assistant District Officer (Administration), was convicted of using her position to obtain a RM150,000 bribe for herself and RM34,980 for her relative in March 2020 in Kuala Penyu.
The charges stated that Monica proposed her relative’s company to supply food and beverage for frontline officers during the implementation of the Covid-19 Movement Control Order (MCO) in Kuala Penyu.
The two charges were under Section 23(1) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009, punishable under Section 24 of the same Act.
The indictment provides for a jail term of up to 20 years and a fine of not less than five times the amount involved or RM10,000, whichever is higher, upon conviction.
Monica, who was represented by counsel Datuk Norbert Chin, had obtained a stay of her execution, pending her appeal to a High Court here.
The court released her on RM10,000 bail with RM5,000 deposit and one local surety which was her previous bail condition, pending her appeal.
On April 23, the same court ordered Monica to enter her defence for the two charges after the judge ruled that the prosecution had established a prima facie case against her.
Eleven prosecution witnesses were called to testify against Monica.
The accused had called two witnesses, including herself.
The post Civil servant jailed, fined over food supply tender abuse appeared first on Borneo Post Online.