Abdul Kahar Kalid, 57, however, successfully secured a reduction of his jail sentence from an 18-month term imposed by the High Court.
Justice Mariana Yahya, who delivered the oral judgment, said the sessions court judge who conducted the trial did not misdirect himself when he ordered Kahar to enter his defence.
“The trial judge was correct to invoke a presumption under Section 23 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act to order the appellant to answer the charges,” she said.
Mariana said Kahar’s complaint that several prosecution witnesses were not credible was baseless in light of findings of fact made by the trial judge.
“We find the conviction, which was also affirmed by the High Court, is safe,” she said.
However, the bench, which also comprised justices Kamaludin Said and Hadhariah Syed Ismail, allowed Kahar’s appeal to restore 12-month jail terms imposed by the sessions court on Jan 6, 2020, which were ordered to run concurrently.
The High Court had increased the term to 18 months following the prosecution’s appeal last year.
“The sessions court judge rightly considered the sentencing principles in meting out the punishment,” she said.
The sessions court also imposed a RM56,544 fine which Kahar has paid.
On the first charge, Kahar was found to have misused his position as a public officer by handing out a procurement contract to supply printer toners, USB disk drives and stationery worth RM3,508.80 to Neo Global Enterprise, owned by his wife, Salena Aliass.
He committed the offence at USM’s School of Housing, Building and Planning on July 1, 2011.
On the second charge, he was found to have given a contract to supply one unit of HP colour laser printer worth RM969 to Neo Global Enterprise at the same premises on the same day.
Kahar also gave a contract to supply one unit of Epson scanner worth RM568 to Neo Global Enterprise at the same premises on Aug 10, 2011.
In respect of the fourth charge, he was found to have given a contract to supply a Dell Optiplex desktop-790MT worth RM3,800 to Neo Global Enterprise at the same premises between July 11 and July 19, 2011.
Lawyer Hafiz Jalaludin represented Kahar while deputy public prosecutor Ng Siew Wee prosecuted.