PUTRAJAYA, Jan 30 ― A former senior administrative officer of the International Council for Scientific Union Regional Office for Asia Pacific (ICSU-ROAP) under the Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM) has been remanded for five days from today to facilitate investigation into a corruption case involving funds amounting to RM3 million.

Also remanded for the same period until February 3 was his 57-year-old former colleague and accomplice who was arrested with him at a condominium in Kuala Lumpur at 11.30am yesterday.

The remand order was issued by Magistrate  Mohd Nor Hafidzuddin Yusoff after the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) made the application.

The duo,  detained for investigations under Section 18 of the MACC Act 2009, were brought to the Magistrate's Court here for the remand proceedings at about 10am.

Earlier report quoting MACC sources stated that the 44-year-old former ICSU officer was in charge of  ICSU-ROAP’s administration and finance.

He is alleged to have falsified signatures to obtain ASM's approval to carry out ICSU-ROAP programmes which he handled.

The former officer, who was appointed on a contract basis since 2008, is alleged to have been abetted by his friend in misappropriating funds amounting to RM3 million from 2012 to 2017.

He is also believed to have forged the signatures of the of ICSU-ROAP director and that of the programme manager on claim documents to implement 73 programmes locally and abroad.

He is allegedly found to have submitted invoices, hotel bills, flight tickets and other suspected false documents to support programme expenses, whereas some expenses did not exist and sought to recover the money by channelling it to his personal account.

Meanwhile, his friend was also believed to have impersonated a professor and a scientist from a local university representing Malaysia at a programme organised by ICSU-ROAP overseas.

It is learnt that the ICSU-Paris has been channeling €75 million (RM361 million) for the ICSU-ROAP programmes, apart from the RM1 million from the Ministry of Finance to ASM through the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (Mosti) each year. ― Bernama