ALOR GAJAH: Three civil servants, including a married couple, have been arrested for trying to deceive their department head with fake Covid-19 digital vaccination certificates.

       This was in order to boost their key performance indicator (KPI) scores, it is learnt.

       Alor Gajah OCPD Supt Arshad Abu said the couple paid one of their seniors, age 58, to help them falsify the certification before showing their respective MySejahtera profiles to their superior during their performance evaluations on Dec 30.

       “The couple, who work in the same department, was told by the senior that he had successfully used the fake certification to score high marks in his appraisal and offered to help the husband and wife to obtain the same score for a fee of RM500 each.

       “The senior claimed he had links to a middleman nicknamed ‘VNilai’ who purportedly could supply fake digital certificates for RM500 each,” he said on Thursday (Jan 13).

       Supt Arshad said their head of department suspected something amiss and told his clerical assistant to do a due diligence check with the Rembia Health Clinic on the vaccination status of the three.

       “The reply from the clinic was received on Jan 5.

       “All three were found to have not received any vaccination and provided false information during the KPI evaluation sessions.

       “A police report was lodged on Tuesday (Jan 11),” he said, adding that the government department where the suspects worked had made it compulsory for its staff to produce a vaccination certificate to obtain additional KPI marks.

       All three were detained on Tuesday to help with the investigation under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating.

       “The couple, aged 38 and 33, confessed that they were anti-vaxxers and had paid their senior to obtain the fake certificates to cheat their department head,” Supt Arshad said.

       He added that police are trying to determine if a syndicate is involved and his men are tracking down the middleman.