A finance ministry officer testifies that the firm was assessed following a recommendation by then prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin to appoint the company.
Rosni Yusoff, a government procurement division secretary at the ministry, testified that the company failed the initial assessment when she chaired Jana Wibawa’s contractor assessment committee meeting, Berita Harian reported.
When questioned by deputy public prosecutor Noralis Mat during examination-in-chief, the 52-year-old said the assessment of KCJ Engineering was conducted following a recommendation by then prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin to appoint the company.
Rosni, who was then secretary of the ministry’s government investment companies division, said she assessed KCJ Engineering based on the Jana Wibawa terms of reference before bringing the matter to the contractor assessment committee meeting.
She said the company passed the first assessment, which involved mandatory requirements, as well as the second assessment on financial capability, but failed the third, or technical, assessment at the contractor assessment committee meeting on Dec 15, 2020.
Following this, she said the committee informed the finance ministry of its findings but did not circulate the information to any other party.
“The finance ministry subsequently received a letter from the then Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) instructing that KCJ Engineering be reassessed.
“The decision of the contractor assessment committee meeting on Feb 26, 2021, subsequently found that KCJ Engineering had passed all the criteria required in all three assessments.
“We prepared an approval memorandum recommending the company as the contractor for the project through direct negotiation,” she said.
KCJ Engineering was eventually awarded a road construction project linking Felda Bukit Jalor to Gemas, Negeri Sembilan, under the Jana Wibawa programme after the reassessment.
Memorandum from PMO
Asked further by Noralis, Rosni said the procurement division would not have taken any action if it had not received instructions from the finance ministry through a memorandum from the PMO. She said this was because if any company failed the assessment, the process would stop there.
Meanwhile, in her witness statement, Rosni said if KCJ Engineering had not been named in the prime minister’s letter dated Nov 13, 2020, the contractor assessment committee would not have assessed the company.
She explained that assessments were only conducted on companies recommended by the PMO. If the company had not undergone the assessment process by the contractor assessment committee, it would not have been awarded the project by the public works department (JKR).
“Every appointment of a contractor under the Jana Wibawa programme through direct negotiation must undergo the committee’s assessment process as a prerequisite before price negotiations and the letter of acceptance is issued.
“Throughout the implementation of the Jana Wibawa programme, all proposed contractor names and projects carried out through direct negotiations were submitted by the PMO,” she said.
Last month, a KCJ Engineering finance manager told the High Court that she had never prepared cheques for political donations to any party other than Bersatu, which received RM800,000 from the company.
Muhyiddin, 79, faces seven charges of abuse of power and money laundering linked to his administration’s Jana Wibawa programme, a government initiative introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic to assist Bumiputera contractors. - FMT
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