Court staff investigated over forged birth certificate endorsement
The state’s court has also suspended two clerical staff in Kota Kinabalu and Tawau and temporarily halted its mobile court services in the state pending an outcome of the police investigations.
Sabah Police Commissioner Datuk Hamza Taib confirmed that a police report had been lodged on Jan 11 by a court official and the police commercial crime officers have begun investigations into claims of magistrates’ signatures being forged for applications of birth certificate (BE) endorsement.
He said the investigations under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating were focusing on claims that the magistrates’ signatures were forged by certain court staff for monetary gains in the birth certificate applications for people applying for the late birth registration at mobile courts.
“We are checking if the signatures are forged, we have to check them with the genuine signatures, they are still under investigations and we cannot disclose much at this moment,” Hamza said when contacted yesterday.
However, he said so far, they have not made any arrest in connection with the case.
Sabah Courts director Ismail Brahim said yesterday that on Jan 11 at around 3pm they discovered a birth certificate endorsement (BE) which they suspected was forged as the number for the certificate was not in the court system.
“We immediately alerted the police and lodged a report on the matter. The next day, we also reported the matter to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) for assistance on this matter,” he said.
“The matter is still under investigation by the police and the MACC.
“We view this matter seriously, and we will not tolerate any attempts by any quarters, be it from our staff or outsiders to manipulate endorsement of the birth certificate endorsement application as this would pose a serious threat to the country,” he said.
Ismail said they have taken immediate steps to suspend the staff responsible for the birth certificate endorsement application as this is a normal procedure when an investigation is being carried out.
“At the moment, an internal investigation is also being carried out to identify the weak links if any, in our system.
“In any event, we have taken immediate additional measures to enhance the security of the whole process in order to ensure that such an incident will never occur again,’’ he added.
Ismail said that the matter had nothing to do with the operations of the mobile court but it was an unfortunate incident that occurred at the court houses in Kota Kinabalu and Tawau.
Sabah’s mobile courts apart from hearing cases in rural areas also helps people to obtain their birth certificate endorsement after a hearing.
The court’s endorsement is used by applicants to obtain birth certificates from the National Registration Department.
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