KUALA LUMPUR (July 8): A senior official with the Ministry of Finance (MoF) has testified that former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had ordered a memorandum detailing SRC International Sdn Bhd’s bid for a government guarantee to secure a RM2 billion loan from the Retirement Fund (Incorporated) (KWAP) in 2011, be prepared quickly.
Retired Finance Ministry secretary (management, loan, capital market and actuarial) Datuk Maliami Hamad, the prosecution's 43rd witness who took the witness stand this afternoon, said he was pressured to prepare the memorandum in time for a Cabinet meeting on Aug 17, 2011 and claims that then prime minister Najib was behind the memorandum.
“There was limited time. The directive to prepare the cabinet memorandum does not only come from SRC but also the then secretary-general Tan Sri Wan Abdul Aziz Wan Abdullah whom I know was directed by Najib.
“I also received a similar directive from the late Datuk Azlin Alias [the principal private secretary to Najib]. I believe that Azlin's directive came from the prime minister. The oral directive received is to ensure that the memorandum [for SRC to get the government guarantee] received approval from the cabinet within the same week,” he said during examination-in-chief by deputy public prosecutor Datuk Suhaimi Ibrahim.
He added that his subordinate officers, including Afidah Azwa Abdul Aziz — the MoF's strategic investment division principal assistant secretary and prosecution witness no. 41 — were also pressued to ensure that the memorandum gets the consideration and approval on the same day.
The witness said it was the first time he had ever had to prepare a Cabinet memorandum proposing a government guarantee to back a company’s loan request in just one day.
He reaffirmed Afidah’s earlier testimony that it was highly unusual for the MoF to prepare memoranda on behalf of companies.
Maliami also added that normally, the memorandum is brought to the Finance Minister II, but he was ordered to give the document to Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop — the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department who was in charge of the Economic Planning Unit — instead.
The memorandum was eventually signed and approved by Nor on Aug 15, 2011, the same day that it was prepared by Afidah.
He said MoF then informed SRC that the cabinet has approved the government guarantee and that the guarentee was signed by the Finance Minister II Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah on Aug 26, 2011.
Najib is faced with three counts of criminal breach of trust, three money laundering and one abuse of power of a total of RM42 million of SRC funds.
He is alleged to have received the funds of RM27 million and RM5 million on Dec 26, 2014, and another RM10 million on Feb 10, 2015.
The hearing before Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali continues tomorrow.