Penang Development Corporation Management Services senior manager K Baskaran has denied charges by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) that he had made a false claim for a time recording item worth RM5,700.

He was picked-up by the MACC at 1pm in Penang yesterday.

Baskaran, 53, who has served the PDC, a state-owned agency, for 28 years, claimed trial at the Sessions Court today for making the fraudulent claim for the item, which was not supplied, in 2006.

He had allegedly produced a false invoice to Dalilah Yusoff of the PDC’s Finance and Investment Division, for the purchase of an EN200 Ethernet Communication Module from Gizasoft Technologies Sdn Bhd.

He allegedly committed the offence under section 11(c) of the Anti Corruption Act 1997, at the PDC building in Bayan Baru on Aug 11, 2006.

If found guilty, he faces a fine five times the value of the bribe and up to 20 years’ jail.

Deputy public prosecutor Janariah Abdul Mutalib proposed that the court set bail at RM20,000.

Baskaran’s counsel N Rajivan, however, pleaded for a lower bail in view of the former’s long service to the corporation, and that he is married with two children.

Rajivan added that by setting bail at that amount, the accused is being ‘punished’ before the trial even began as the bail is much higher than the amount of the bribe in the offence.

Judge Roslan Hamid then set bail at RM10,000 with one surety. The case is fixed for mention on Jan 27 next year.