IPOH, MALAYSIA - An agent provocateur was ordered by the Sessions Court to disclose how much the then Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) paid him to carry out a sting operation.

Businessman Mohamad Imran Abdullah, the star prosecution witness in the corruption trial of two former PKR state exco members, revealed that he was paid RM100($40) for each day's work after Judge Azhaniz Teh Azman Teh allowed the defence application to compel him to disclose the amount.

"According to calculations by ACA enforcement officer Mohd Firdaus Idris, I was to be paid RM100, excluding food allowances, for a full day's work.

"The money was only to be paid after the job was completed," Mohamad Imran testified in the trial of Mohd Osman Mohd Jailu, 57, and Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi, 52.

The two, together with former Perak Tengah district councillors Usaili Alias, 56, and Zul Hassan, 45, and businessman Fairul Azrim Ismail, 31, face various corruption charges over a proposed multi-million ringgit development project in Seri Iskandar.

The offences were allegedly committed by them to help Mohamad Imran obtain the project.

Cross-examined further by counsel Surjan Singh, who is representing Usaili, Mohamad Imran denied that he would be paid more than the "consolation payment" pledged to him, if there were arrests made.

The subject of "consolation payment" had been raised earlier during the course of the trial when Mohamad Imran refused to say how much he had been paid by the ACA, now known as the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

As a result, Judge Azhaniz Teh ordered both the defence and prosecution to submit on the matter.

Surjan Singh, in submitting on the matter yesterday, told the court that there was no case authority on the matter.

Nevertheless, he said it was relevant for Mohamad Imran to reveal the amount he had been paid because the matter was of public interest.

"This is not a case of the public being stopped at the side of the road and being asked for RM100 but a case that involves entrapment.

"We did not ask, it was the witness who said that he was paid. So what's wrong if he admits to whether he was paid RM1 or paid RM1mil," Surjan Singh said.

Counsel Mohd Asri Othman, representing Fairul Azrim, submitted that a person would be motivated to work harder when there was more money to be paid.

"If you're paid peanuts, then you wouldn't be working so hard," he contended.

The hearing continues.