PETALING JAYA, Dec 30 – Section 18 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act will be charges to the workers who producing a false sick claims. Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officer said workers who submit false sick claims are committing corruption due to employers losing a whopping RM2.9bil annually to pay workers who are replacing colleagues on medical leave.
“Why producing a medical certificate with false information or claim was an offence under Section 18 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act. Submitting a medical cert was no different from submitting a claim, a receipt or an invoice. Did you know that producing a medical certificate with false information about one’s illness is corruption? It is under the fake claims category,” explained by the commission’s community education division officer, Mohamad Tarmize Abdul Manaf.
Mohamad Tarmize hoped people would not take sick leave and MCs lightly. He said doctors also have a responsibility to be cautious when a patient applies for sick leave. Besides that, MACC deputy chief commissioner Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali had also confirmed that fake claims submitted to employers was an act of deceiving the principal and an offence.
He added that under Section 24, workers making false claims could be jailed for up to 20 years and fined. It was reported previously that Malaysian employers were incurring more than RM1bil in losses annually on workers who get sick leave or MCs. In a 2014 report, the Malaysia Employers Federation revealed that employers lost RM2.9bil annually in overtime payments to workers who are replacing those on medical leave.
