Three more remanded over PenjanaKerjaya programme fake claims

PUTRAJAYA: Three individuals have been remanded as the anti-graft agency pursues its probe on alleged fake claims and misappropriation of funds, said to be amounting to RM100mil involving the PenjanaKerjaya programme.

The remands were made at the Johor Baru and George Town Magistrate’s Court on Friday (July 15).

It is learnt that one of the suspects is a senior chief clerk at a government department.

In Johor Baru, Magistrate Melody Wong Sze Mun allowed an application by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to remand the civil servant for three days.

It is understood that the 41-year-old suspect was arrested at the Johor MACC office around 7.45pm on Thursday (July 14).

Sources said that the suspect was believed to have accepted RM5,000 from a company owner as a reward for helping the company to make claims under the Hiring Incentives Programme.

In George Town, Magistrate Rosnee Mohd Radzuan allowed for two suspects, aged 40 and 26, to be remanded for six days until July 20.

The two were arrested at the state MACC office late Thursday after they were summoned to have their statements recorded.

Sources said the suspects were believed to have submitted documents that contained false information online to the Social Security Organisation (Socso).

The claims were for incentive payments for hiring and training workers under the National Economic Recovery Plan (Penjana).

MACC senior director of investigations Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hashim confirmed the arrests.

This is the second round of arrests made under Ops Hire - a collaboration between the MACC and Socso - to investigate claims that certain companies had been submitting false claims and had misappropriated incentives involving the PenjanaKerjaya programme.

On Thursday, 37 individuals, including company owner, directors, managers and shareholders were among individuals remanded as the anti-graft agency mounted a probe into the case.

PenjanaKerjaya was introduced in 2020 under the National Economic Recovery Plan, offering financial incentives of between RM600 and RM1,000 to employers for each employee or apprentice employed for up to six months.

Socso said it has suspended payments totalling RM423mil for the programme following the probe.

To date, Socso has made payments totalling RM1.72bil to employers and workers under the PenjanaKerjaya programme, involving 45,379 employers to place 327,789 job seekers.