TRIPLE TROUBLE FOR BRIBE BUNGLE

END OF THE ROAD...... Enforcement officers from the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism, Nycle Andrew (right) and Jackson checking the tanks filled with 8,000 litres of diesel atop a seized lorry. The ministry seized another 10,000 litres of diesel from a bigger tank at a workshop in Km15 Jalan Penrissen, Kuching. The seizure is worth more than RM100,000.

KUCHING: A workshop operator’s attempt to bribe the state’s Natural Resources and Environment Board (NREB) officers who checked on his premises following complaints about waste disposal from his workshop blew open his cover for illegal sale of diesel.

In trying to buy his way out of trouble, he ended up with summonses from three enforcement agencies – NREB, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism.

It started with a team from the Sarawak NREB checking his workshop after receiving complaints that waste from his workshop at a shophouse at Km 15, Penrissen Road here was affecting the environment, yesterday.

In trying to evade possible legal action, the operator in his 30s attempted to bribe the NREB personnel but the officers involved refused to accept.

Instead, one of the NREB personnel called up the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) which in turn deployed four enforcers to the scene.

They later found a skid tank and a truck carrying tanks fully filled with diesel.

Sensing that the operator was involved in more illegal acts, the MACC enforcement officers relayed their findings to the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism here.

The ministry’s Sarawak director, Wan Ahmad Uzir Wan Sulaiman deployed his enforcement unit to the scene which later reported to him that the workshop operator had no licence to sell the diesel.

“We seized the skid tanks, which we believe contained about 10,000 litres while there were another 8,000 litres in the truck cargo bed,” he told reporters here.

The value of the truck and the industrial price of the diesel combined was over RM100,000, he said, adding that the operator could be charged under the Control of Supplies Act 1961, which provides for a penalty of up to RM100,000 or three years’ jail or both, upon conviction.

However, the ministry would have to wait its turn to interrogate the workshop operator as NREB and MACC are ahead in the queue.

When asked on the whereabouts of the operator, Wan Ahmad said: “The MACC is still questioning him.” (BP)