DAY 13 | Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, will today be facing the 13th day of her corruption trial at the Kuala Lumpur High Court.
She is facing three charges pertaining to the alleged misappropriation of funds for the supply and installation of solar energy at 369 rural schools in Sarawak for the Education Ministry.
The project was valued at RM1.25 billion, and awarded to Jepak Holdings Sdn Bhd through direct negotiation.
Malaysiakini brings you live reports of the proceedings.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
- Defence berates Alias Ahmad for not taking charge as supervising officer
- Defence asserts that there was gross negligence in solar project
- Have you played golf with Jepak MD - defence asks witness
- Minutes from Najib instructed Edu Ministry to 'follow procedures'
- Witness denies abusing power to remove clause from Jepak LoA
- Defence grills former Edu Ministry sec-gen on LoA for solar project
- I took Rosmah's queries seriously as she was PM's wife - witness
- Alias Ahmad says Rizal Mansor contacted him was about payments to Jepak
- 'Request approved, please pay the advance immediately'
Thank you for following Malaysiakini's live report
4.30pm - Thank you for following our live report today.
Proceedings end for the day
4.15pm - Court is adjourned to tomorrow morning, where defence counsel Akberdin Abdul Kader will continue cross-examining former Education Ministry secretary-general Alias Ahmad.
Proceedings resume after a short break
3.56pm - Court resumes.
3.47pm - Court breaks for a brief recess.
Defence berates Alias Ahmad for not taking charge as supervising officer
3.40pm - Defence counsel Akberdi Abdul Kader puts it to Alias Ahmad that setting up a procurement management committee after the letter of agreement (LoA) was issued to Jepak Holdings was pointless.
Alias agrees but says that he had been advised by his deputy at the time to still set up the committee to oversee matters such as the structure to the solar panel project.
Akberdin then berates Alias for not being in charge as the supervising officer and being a laughing stock to the Finance Ministry, which had continuously objected to Alias' requests for advance payments and special exemptions to procurement procedures.
The former Education Ministry secretary-general says he is not "maksum" (free from mistakes) and that his officers who had more experience should have advised him.
However, he maintains issuing the LoA was not his fault.
Defence asserts that there was gross negligence in solar project
3pm - Defence counsel Akberdin Abdu Kader puts it to Alias Ahmad that whatever instructions that were issued by the prime minister, it is the responsibility of the respective government agencies through its supervising officers to make sure that implementations follow procedures.
Alias agrees with Akberdin.
Akberdin then puts it that in the solar project's case, there was gross negligence when the project did not go through value management as required by procedures before the letter of agreement was issued.
Alias also agrees to this.
Proceedings resume after lunch break
2.30pm - Court is back in session.
Defence counsel Akberdin Abdul Kader resumes with the cross-examination of former Education Ministry secretary-general Ahmad Alias.
12.45pm - Court breaks for lunch.
Have you played golf with Jepak MD - defence asks witness
12.40pm - Defence counsel Akberdin Abdul Kader says the letter from Jepak Holdings to Najib on Jan 5, 2017, contains a request for former Education Ministry secretary-general Ahmad Alias to be appointed as the permanent chairperson of Tender Board A, which would oversee the solar panel project.
Jepak also asked that Alias be given absolute power to make decisions on the project without interference and to implement the contract.
Akberdin (photo) then asks if Alias, who denied knowledge of the letter, if he knows Jepak Holding managing director Saidi Abang Samsudin.
Akberdin: Do you know Saidi?
Alias: No.
Akberdin: Have you played golf with him?
Alias: No.
Akberdin: At Bintulu golf course?
Alias: Only at Tropicana Golf course.
Akberdin: At Bintulu?
Alias: No.
Akberdin: Have you played golf with him overseas?
Alias: Not even once.
Akberdin: If you don't know him, are not close to him, why is he asking for you to be given absolute power.
It is not clear if Alias' answer about playing golf at Tropicana meant that he himself has only played there, or if he had played with Saidi there.
Minutes from Najib instructed Edu Ministry to 'follow procedures'
12.30pm - Defence counsel Akberdin Abdul Kader brings Alias Ahamd's attention to a letter from Jepak Holdings to Najib on Jan 5, 2017.
The letter sees Jepak asking then prime minister Najib Abdul Razak, who was also the then finance minister, for immediate approval for the Education Ministry to issue an acceptance letter for the solar panel project.
It contains minutes annotated by Najib instructing Alias to: "Please monitor the implementation of this project and follow procedures so that it doesn't affect students' studies."
The words follow procedures are underlined.
The letter was forwarded to Alias, with an attached cover letter from the Prime Minister's Department dated Jan 16, 2017, which notes that the minutes were written on the same day.
The former Education Ministry secretary-general, however, says he has never seen this letter, and that there is no stamp from his office marking that he received it.
Akberdin accuses him of lying. He says the documents were provided by Alias' office to the MACC and was then supplied to the court, and the defence tendered it.
Alias insists he did not receive the letter.
Witness denies abusing power to remove clause from Jepak LoA
12.20pm - Defence counsel Akberdin Abdul Kader questions why a price negotiation committee was only set up after the letter of agreement (LoA) for Jepak Holdings was issued.
The lawyer says the committee should have been set up before the letter was issued, as per Finance Ministry guidelines, to which Alias Ahmad agreed.
The former Education Ministry secretary-general, however, says he has an explanation.
Alias is expected to give this explanation later when he is re-examined by the prosecution.
Akberdin then accuses Alias of abusing his power by removing a clause in the LoA which that would allow the government to terminate works and make deductions from any unfinished works.
Alias denied this.
Yesterday, former Education Ministry asset acquisition and management department secretary Kamarudin Abdullah said the clause was removed on instructions from then-minister Mahdzir Khalid.
Defence grills former Edu Ministry sec-gen on LoA for solar project
11.52am - Defence counsel Akberdin Abdul Kader grills Former Education Ministry secretary-general Alias Ahmad why the letter of award (LoA) for the solar panel project clashes with the Finance Ministry's decision on Nov 1 not to allocate an additional RM461.2 million.
The additional allocation had been requested by Alias' predecessor Madinah Mohamad (photo).
Akberdin says the LoA states an amount inclusive of the rejected additional allocation.
Alias replies that the Finance Ministry letter on Nov 1 also states that the project can proceed based on the ministry's annual budget.
Akberdin keeps pressing Alias on approving an LoA which contradicts the Finance Ministry's decision, which the former Education Ministry secretary-general denies.
After a few rounds of this Alias tells the court that he did not write-up the LoA.
He had stated in his witness statement earlier that he was unsure if he was involved in drafting the LoA, but had seen it weeks after it was signed by then-education minister Mahdzir Khalid.
Akberdin accuses Alias of lying about his involvement in the LoA.
Akberdin: You are lying, you know about this LoA… according to the Finance Ministry circular, the one who should prepare an LoA is the supervising officer (secretary-general).
Alias: I agree (that is what the circular states), but that is not what happened.
After being accused of lying several more times, Alias tells the court that there is a system in the ministry in which he delegates to his deputy and others as he can't control the ministry "100 percent".
"If they (my deputy and officers) don't come to me, I won't know what happens," he says.
Proceedings resume after a short break
11.35am - Court is back in session.
11.20am - Court takes a short break after Alias finishes reading his witness statement.
I took Rosmah's queries seriously as she was PM's wife - witness
10.50am - Former Education Ministry secretary-general Alias Ahmad testifies he had a conversation with Rosmah Mansor - the date of which he could not recall - where she had asked him about the advance payment to Jepak Holdings and when it could be made as the company could not operate without it.
He says that he informed her that the advance could not be paid as the insurance company Jepak had engaged was not licensed.
Alias adds that Rosmah also asked him when the contract with Jepak would be signed as without it progress payments could not be made.
He informed her that Jepak had not prepared a draft contract to be reviewed by the Education Ministry.
The conversation ended there, he says.
Alias adds that he took Rosmah's queries seriously as she was the prime minister's wife and thus, instructed his officers to find a way to solve the problems involving payments to Jepak and the preparation of the contract.
Alias Ahmad says Rizal Mansor contacted him was about payments to Jepak
10.45am - Alias Ahmad tells the court that Rosmah Mansor's former aide Rizal Mansor had contacted him asking that the payments to Jepak Holdings be sped up.
The former Education Ministry secretary-general says he is unsure if this referred to advance payments or works payments.
Alias says he explained to Rizal the problems regarding the matter and believed the latter was asking on behalf of Rosmah.
'Request approved, please pay the advance immediately'
10.27am - Former Education Ministry secretary-general Alias Ahmad testifies that he had received via WhatsApp, a letter from Jepak Holdings to then-prime minister Najib Abdul Razak.
The letter contained minutes for Alias from Najib, which read: "Request approved, please pay the advance immediately."
This is regarding Jepak's request for a RM130 million advance for the solar hybrid project.
Alias says he then instructed then-Education Ministry asset acquisition and management department secretary Kamarudin Abdullah to take immediate action.
However the Finance Ministry would go on to reject the RM130 million advance, saying only 25 percent or RM10 million can be paid in advance, whichever is higher.
Proceedings begin
9.58am - Court is in session.
9.50am - The accused, Rosmah Mansor enters the witness dock.
Lawyer Shafee Abdullah makes a brief appearance in the courtroom to speak with defence counsel Azrul Zulkifli Stork.
Former Education Ministry secretary-general Alias Ahmad, the twelfth witness, is waiting in the witness stand.
Shafee is the lead defence counsel for Rosmah's husband, former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak, who is on trial for the alleged misappropriation of funds from SRC International Sdn Bhd, a former 1MDB subsidiary, in a separate courtroom. \
Former Education Ministry secretary-general Alias Ahmad is expected to be in the witness stand.
According to the ministry's former asset acquisition and management department secretary Kamarudin Abdullah, Alias had been the key individual that Jepak Holdings was pressuring to secure an advance for the solar panel project.
Alias had also reportedly received minutes from then-prime minister Najib Abdul Razak to approve an advance of RM130 million to the company.
During yesterday's hearing, Kamarudin also testified it was then-education minister Mahdzir Khalid who personally penned a letter asking Najib that Jepak Holdings be granted an exemption from procurement regulations for implementation works on the solar panel project.
He also testified that it was Mahdzir who instructed him to remove a clause from the letter of award (LoA) to Jepak Holdings that would allow the government to terminate works and make deductions from any unfinished works.
[More to follow] - Mkini
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