Then premier Najib Abdul Razak’s appointment of former chief secretary to the government (KSN) Mohd Sidek Hassan to 1MDB’s board of advisers was done out of the “goodness of his heart”, the Kuala Lumpur High Court heard today.
Nineteenth prosecution witness Sidek (above) explained that Najib thought his salary of RM29,125 as the KSN at the time was too low and needed to be compensated in other ways.
“In all honesty, I thought the PM at the time offered it (the board appointment) because of my salary (as then KSN) and I hate that this would appear in the newspapers, that the PM thought my salary was a bit too low for the responsibilities, I came to know that when I joined Petronas later (as chairperson).
“… so (it was done) from the goodness of his heart - I thought that was the reason (for my appointment).
“This was just a vehicle to compensate for that low salary, not because I was KSN,” Sidek said while being cross-examined by lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.
When the lawyer put forward that there was nothing wrong with Najib’s choice of Sidek as the decision was driven by the “goodness of his heart”, the witness agreed.
On a question from Shafee about whether Najib had selected Sidek because the latter was an eminent person, the witness also agreed.
The lawyer was referring to the Memorandum and Articles of Association of 1MDB, which state that its board of advisers shall comprise at least four people and at most eight members, with the premier as its chairperson, the deputy chairperson being the minister in charge of the Economic Planning Unit (EPU), and the remaining members being eminent persons.
The witness was testifying during today’s RM2.28 billion 1MDB corruption trial against former finance minister Najib.
RM30k monthly payment
Yesterday, Sidek testified that he was never invited to any meeting when he was on 1MDB’s advisory board.
He also testified that Najib selected him for the advisory board position with monthly fees of RM30,000 as the then premier thought his salary was too low.
Proceedings before trial judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues today.
Najib is on trial for four counts of abuse of power and 21 counts of money laundering involving RM2.28 billion of 1MDB’s funds.
The prosecution contended that the wrongdoing at 1MDB was done by businessperson Low Taek Jho (Jho Low) with the blessing of Najib.
The defence team however claimed the accused had no knowledge of wrongdoing and that the whole embezzlement scheme was solely masterminded by Low and several members of the fund’s management team. - Mkini
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