[25 MARCH 1997]

The dispute is over the dismissal of the claimant from the service of the company with effect from 30 April 1991.

The case for the company is that COW1 Tan Chin Leong was the chief internal auditor in 1991. One of his functions was to carry out the audit of the branches of the company. In January 1991 an audit was carried out on the Melaka Raya branch of the company. This was headed by Noryazid (COW2). The audit team discovered that a cheque for RM60,000 issued by Sg. Emas Motor Credit Sdn Bhd., (Sg. Emas) payable to Dynasty Tours and Travel Sdn. Bhd., (DTT) was credited into the Savings Account No. 2217052641 belonging to one Abd. Aziz Bulat who was also its director. The head of operations in his memo dated 12 October 1990 had informed all the branches that cheques, crossed, account payee and not negotiable or account payee or not negotiable should not be accepted for credit of third party's account under any circumstances unless with the prior approval of head office. The memo is at p. 4 of COB. A further investigation was conducted and a report was put up. The persons involved in the payment of the cheque into third party account were the former branch manager Abdullah bin Abd. Rahman and the claimant. Abdullah Abd. Rahman went on a long leave to Mexico and subsequently tendered his resignation. He never came back to the company. The company did not allow officers to receive gifts from customers to be in line with Bank Negara Malaysia's (BNM) guideline GP7.

COW2 Noryazid Hamzah was the head of credit administration and information unit. In January 1991 he was the internal auditor and in the same month he went to Melaka to audit the Melaka branch. He was the leader to perform a credit audit with special emphasis on facilities approved during the tenure of Abdullah Abd. Rahman as the branch manager. They were informed a third party cheque payable to DTT was deposited into the savings account of Abd. Aziz Bulat. There was no deposit made in the account of DTT. They requested the vouchers to be taken out to ascertain the deposit. After ascertaining that there was a credit made in the savings account they sought the help of the deputy branch manager and called the Public Bank Muar to fax them a copy of the said cheque deposited. This was to determine the payee's name. It was a Public Bank cheque. It was made to DTT and looking at the savings account, of Abd. Aziz Bulat there was withdrawal made after the deposit (Exh. COB p. 45). Exhibit COB p. 48 was the deposit slip of RM60,000 a Public Bank cheque No. 215395. This deposit made into the account of Abd. Aziz Bulat did not comply with the guidelines laid down by general manager operations which was circulated to all branches (Exh. COB p. 4). The drawing voucher (Exh. COB p. 46) was issued by Public Bank Melaka being the courier service charge on the marked cheque and was for attention of the claimant. He then reported to the chief internal auditor. DTT was owing the company money to the extent of RM45,000 (Exh. COB14).

Exhibit COB p. 47 was a clearing schedule which reported a summary of cheques that the company lodged for clearing and sent to Public Bank through the clearing house. Exhibit COB p. 44 was a savings account withdrawal slip showing a withdrawal made by Abd. Aziz Bulat in the sum of RM50,000. In the course of his investigation he took statement from the claimant (Exh. COBS p. 1) on 19 January 1991 and on 25 January 1991 he took further statement from the claimant (Exh. COBS p. 5). The claimant was the loan recovery officer. The claimant generally had nothing to do with the clearing of the cheque. The claimant did mention that upon clearance of the cheque he went to Public Bank to collect the advice with the approval of the branch manager Abdullah Abdul Rahman. This was something unusual. Normally an office boy could do it. He also took a statement from Abd. Aziz Bulat (COBS pp. 2-4). The statement was taken in the presence of Mohd. Nasir the head of cre