GEORGE TOWN: Two more doctors and an agent have been remanded for four days from today to facilitate investigation into the submission of falsified Social Security Organisation (Socso) disability claims.
The order to remand the two senior medical officers from a government hospital, aged 43 and 50 respectively, and the 32-year-old agent was issued by Magistrate Siti Nurul Suhaila Baharin.
The case is being investigated under Section 18 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009.
It is understood that the three male suspects were detained following a special operation conducted in collaboration with the Penang MACC and Socso yesterday.
Yesterday, 33 individuals including three doctors, 19 Socso contributors, eight agents, and three ‘runners’, aged between 26 and 60, were remanded in connection with the case.
Preliminary investigations also revealed that the amount of bribes involved is approximately RM2 million.
The arrests were made following revelations by Senator Dr R.A. Lingeshwaran in July, who urged the Human Resource Ministry to clarify allegations that several doctors handling Socso disability claims had been suspended for their purported link to falsifying such claims.
Lingeshwaran, a former director of Sungai Bakap Hospital, told the Dewan Negara that these doctors were suspended after Socso discovered the fraudulent activities at a hospital in Penang.
