Sunday, July 1, 2012

Over 20 commissioners for oaths struck off over fraud


PETALING JAYA: More than 20 commissioners for oaths have been struck off since last year over fraud involving Road Transport Depart-ment (JPJ) documents.
The office of the Chief Registrar (CR) of the Federal Court said there were 20 cases of fraud in 2010 and 21 complaints of the same nature from January to May.
Following an investigation, the CR's office said 16 commissioners for oaths were struck off in 2010.
Of the 21 complaints received from January to May, the CR's office said 13 were still being investigated while eight had been struck off.
In a June 8 circular, Chief Registrar Datuk Hashim Hamzah had said that any JPJ documents attested to by commissioners for oaths must have thumbprints as well.
This was because there had been cases where signatures on documents submitted to the JPJ were forged, he said.
The CR's office said Chief Justice Tun Zaki Azmi had issued the directive after having received numerous complaints from JPJ that commissioners were not complying with the Commissioners for Oaths Rules 1993.
Asked whether the objective to protect the integrity of documents had been achieved with the new directive, the CR's office said “it was still too early to tell.”
Council of Commissioners for Oaths Malaysia secretary Ho Sai Chong said the directive was a step in the right direction as it protected the public and the commissioners.
“Fraud cases are not always the commissioner's fault. We try to verify the deponent's identity by checking his or her signature and identity card but there have been cases where even the IC is a forgery,” Ho said.




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