Employees reminded that submitting fake MCs a crime

Medical practitioners are advised to only issue medical certificates to patients who are genuinely ill.

PETALING JAYA: Employees who resort to submitting medical certificates (MCs) with false sick claims can be categorised as having officially committed a crime, said Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC)’s Mohamad Tarmize Abdul Manaf.

According to the anti-graft agency’s community education division officer, the act of producing MCs based on false information was an offence under Section 18 of the MACC Act – and was no different from submitting fake documents such as receipts or invoices.

“Do you know that producing a (fake) MC can be (viewed as) corruption? It is an offence under the fake claims category,” wrote Mohamad Tarmize on Monday, in a post published on the MACC’s official blog ourdifferentview.com.

Backing his claim, Mohamad Tarmize cited a 1972 case where a Malayan Railways employee, Nadimuthu was found guilty for submitting two MCs claiming that he was unfit for work when in reality, he was in good health.

The defence handling Nadimuthu’s case argued that MCs were not listed under the Act but this, was negated by the judge who set a precedence when he ruled that an MC had monetary value since it entitled the recipient to go on sick leave while still getting paid a full salary.

“Finally the court found Nadimuthu to be guilty and he was slapped with fines and an order requiring him to pay back the salary he received during his ‘sick leave’. The reason behind it was that Nadimuthu had skipped work for no reason,” explained Tarmize.

He then advised the public to avoid taking medical leave without a valid reason while medical practitioners were reminded to be cautious about issuing an MC to those who are not actually ill.