KUALA LUMPUR: A witness denies that changing the term "advisory fee" to "commission" in a "project advisory agreement", according to his witness statement, was to enable the case involving Sayed Amir Muzzakkir Al Sayed Mohamad to fall under the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act.
Nexuscorpgroup Sdn Bhd (NSB) managing director Wan Azhar Mohamed Yusof, 51, said this at the Sessions Court here when questioned by lawyer Datuk Yaacob Md Sam, who is representing Sayed Amir, a former political secretary to former home minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin, who is facing three corruption charges involving RM350,000.
Yaacob: I put it to you that you (Wan Azhar) changed the term "advisory fee" to "commission" in the "project advisory agreement" to enable the case to be defined under Section 3 of the MACC Act. Do you agree or not?
Wan Azhar: I do not agree.
In his witness statement, Wan Azhar confirmed that the "project advisory agreement" was made as a 5% commission agreement based on the value of the project requested by Sayed Amir and Datuk Seri Mohd Khairi Mat Jahya (managing director of Al Khairi Group Berhad) to help NSB secure the tender for the maintenance services and supply of spare parts for infrastructure equipment, servers, software and user radios for the RMPNet system for the police.
Yaacob: As a long-standing and veteran businessman who has entered into many contracts, have you ever heard that there is a provision under the Evidence Act prohibiting parties from changing words stated in an agreed agreement?
Wan Azhar: Maybe.
Yaacob: I put it to you that you are trying to change these terms to give "advisory fee" a different character by changing it to the word "commission".
Wan Azhar: I do not agree.
The 17th prosecution witness also said that he was unaware that "advisory fee" and "commission" were included in the definition of gratification or under Section 3 of the MACC Act.
On May 23, 2024, Sayed Amir, 43, was charged with two counts of receiving RM350,000 in bribes from Wan Azhar as an inducement to help Nexuscorpgroup secure the RMPNet tender for the police, worth more than RM381.1mil, at the Yayasan Tanah Aku office in Solaris Dutamas here, at 4pm on Dec 4, 2020 and 3.30pm on Dec 16, 2020, respectively.
Sayed Amir was also charged with soliciting RM350,000 from the same individual for the same purpose at the Nexuscorpgroup Sdn Bhd office in Shah Alam in early December 2020.
The charges were framed under Section 16(a)(A) of the MACC Act 2009, which carries a maximum jail term of 20 years and a fine of not less than five times the value of the gratification or RM10,000, whichever is higher, upon conviction.
The trial before Judge Rosli Ahmad resumes on Oct 7. – Bernama
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