IMAGINE HOW MUCH MONEY THEY MADE: I.Cs sold between RM2K-RM5K - RCI

KUALA LUMPUR - Officials from the state National Registration Department in Sabah have been implicated in the report for assisting syndicates to issue false documentation such as birth certificates, passports and identification cards.

According to the report, there is ample evidence of the involvement of corrupt individuals in such syndicates.

In giving evidence before the RCI, Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan said these syndicates are a serious problem as they were still operating their businesses.

"These syndicates appear to be assisted by certain officials from the state's NRD department," he said in the report.

Former United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko) president Tan Sri Bernard Dompok in his testimony before the RCI revealed that local birth certificates were sold at RM3,500 each.

“These documents would then be used to get the children of these illegal immigrants into schools as well as obtaining an identification card," he elaborated.

Dompok went on to reveal that in the interviews he conducted for the UPKO initiative, statutory declarations were used to obtain identification cards.

The IC's could be purchased at the price of RM2,000 to RM5,000 each depending on locality and quality.

These syndicates would use the sales pitch stating that they were from the government and that they were providing IC's under a project called 'Project IC'.

They also stated that they had contacts in the states NRD department. -NST