ROSMAH TRIAL | A falling out between Jepak Holdings managing director Saidi Abang Samsudin and his business partner Rayyan Radzwill Abdullah had led to threats to expose then prime minister Najib Abdul Razak and wife Rosmah Mansor's role in an Education Ministry project.
Former Education Ministry secretary-general Madinah Mohamad (photo, above) told the Kuala Lumpur High Court that the threats were made by Rayyan who wanted to wrest control of the solar hybrid project under her ministry.
Testifying as the sixth prosecution witness, Madinah said Rayyan had sent several WhatsApp messages between November 2017 and May 2018 from which she understood that Rayyan was unhappy with Saidi and wanted to take over the project.
"Rayyan claimed that Saidi was involved in various wrongdoings in the solar hybrid project such as changing the terms of the original contract, making false claims, and cheating money from a few parties involved in the project.
"The reason Rayyan told me this was to get my help to set up a meeting with the prime minister so that he can seize control of the project from Saidi and Jepak Holdings.
"Rayyan told me that he would expose 'PM and ma'am's' involvement in the procurement process of the solar hybrid project to the opposition if I did not help him," she told the court during Rosmah's corruption trial.
Previously, former education minister Mahdzir Khalid, who testified as the fifth prosecution witness, had claimed that Rosmah was referred to as "ma'am" in conversations about the project and that she, through her aide Rizal Mansor, had lobbied for the project to go to Jepak Holdings.
Rosmah is facing three charges of soliciting and accepting bribes from Jepak Holdings in exchange for her help to secure the RM1.25 billion project to install solar hybrid systems for 369 rural schools in Sarawak.
Madinah said Rayyan had sent her screenshots of WhatsApp messages from Rizal to prove that he could link Rosmah to the project.
"Rayyan had sent the screenshots to me to prove Rizal Mansor and ma'am's involvement in the application of the solar hybrid project which can be exposed by Rayyan if I did not help Rayyan to seize control of the solar hybrid project from Saidi," she said.
Madinah was asked by DPP Ahmad Akram Gharib to confirm the WhatsApp messages dated Aug 7, Aug 8, Aug 10 and Aug 11 from 2017. However, its contents were not read out in court today.
It is unclear who was on the other end of the communication with Rizal, but Madinah confirmed that she was not part of that conversation.
Madinah said she had asked Rayyan and Najib's private secretary Iskandar Kaus to directly liaise with each other.
Madinah was appointed by Najib as auditor-general in Feb 2017. She had replaced Ambrin Buang who retired amid the National Audit Department facing pressure from the government to allegedly alter its audit report on 1MDB, which is now a subject of a separate trial against Najib.
As auditor-general, Madinah said she had ordered an audit of the solar hybrid project and the process commenced in the first quarter of 2018.
In her testimony earlier, Madinah was asked by the prosecution if the granting of the solar hybrid project had followed procedure, to which she replied: "Surely, it did not".
She told the court that Jepak did not even provide cost breakdowns for the project, no work scope details and there was also no certified consultant appointed by the company for the project.
"This solar hybrid project was not even in the Education Ministry's development plan before this," she said.
Madinah testified that the Education Ministry had issued the acceptance letter for the project after receiving instructions from Najib.
Mahdzir had previously complained that Najib was silent when he complained about the behaviour of Saidi and Rayyan and merely asked that he proceed with granting the project.
Rosmah is accused of dishonestly soliciting RM187.5 million in gratification, which is 15 percent of the solar hybrid project value from Jepak to help them secure the government contract at a cafe.
On the second count, Rosmah is accused of dishonestly accepting RM1.5 million from Jepak's Saidi at her Jalan Langgak Duta home.
On the third count, she is accused of accepting another RM5 million from Saidi at her Jalan Langgak Duta home.
The case is being presided over by Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan. - Mkini
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