KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 17 — A former senior Public Works Department (JKR) officer today said he did not receive any phone calls from then prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to help the contractor of a RM141 million government project, the High Court heard today.

Former Selangor JKR director Lokman Nasir, 62, said this while testifying as the 23rd prosecution witness in Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia president Muhyiddin’s power abuse and money laundering trial.

Lokman was in charge of supervising progress on the RM141 million project to build the Klang Utara district police headquarters (IPD), which was won by contractor Nepturis Sdn Bhd.

During cross-examination by Muhyiddin’s lawyer Chetan Jethwani, Lokman confirmed that there had been no interference from the Prime Minister’s Office while he was supervising the project, and that he did not meet with Muhyiddin.

Chetan: Didn’t receive calls from him or his office to help this contractor?

Lokman: No.

Previously, Nepturis Sdn Bhd’s hidden shareholder Lian Tan Chuan had, as the 21st prosecution witness, told the court that the company had won the RM141 million project on January 12, 2022, and that it had given its first-ever donation to a political party via a February 16, 2022 cheque for RM1 million to Bersatu as a “reward”.

Bank evidence showed that the RM1 million was deposited into Bersatu’s AmBank account on February 21, 2022, while Lian had last month said Nepturis had so far completed 98 per cent of the project.

Among other things, Lokman confirmed today that Nepturis had only started receiving interim payments from the government for progress on the RM141 million project in May 2022, and confirmed eight payment vouchers for over RM16 million paid to Nepturis from May 17, 2022 to February 3, 2023.

Lokman, who retired in April 2024, also agreed that there had been no discussions to terminate the RM141 million project during his tenure and also confirmed he did not know the latest status of the project.

Separately, JKR’s former quantity surveyors’ service director Datuk Zulkipeli Yamat, 63, testified today as the 24th prosecution witness in the trial

Zulkipeli said JKR had received proposal letters from the Finance Ministry to appoint contractors for each of the construction projects under the Jana Wibawa programme.

When asked by deputy public prosecutor Wan Nur Iman Wan Ahmad Afzal, Zulkipeli said only the Finance Ministry was involved in choosing these contractors, while JKR only waited for the letters from the Finance Ministry on the names of the contractors and projects.

He also confirmed that the Finance Ministry’s procurement division had a committee to evaluate contractors, which was chaired by Datin Rosni Mohd Yusoff and had four members (namely JKR’s representative Ruzimah Othman, two Finance Ministry representatives, and a Department of Irrigation and Drainage representative).

He said JKR’s role in that committee was to discuss contractors’ qualifications.

Confirming that four companies including Nepturis had been allowed to join the pre-qualification tender for the IPD Klang Utara project, Zulkipeli said it was up to the Finance Ministry to decide on how many companies are invited to join the tender project.

This morning, the prosecution amended the fourth power abuse charge that Muhyiddin is facing in this trial, by adding KCJ Engineering Sdn Bhd.

Under the amended charge, Muhyiddin is accused of having abused his position as Bersatu president and then prime minister between March 1, 2020 and August 20, 2021 to obtain RM4.8m from Azman Yusoff and KCJ Engineering.

Muhyiddin pleaded not guilty when the amended charge was read out to him, before the trial continued.

In this trial, Muhyiddin is facing seven charges, namely four counts of alleged power abuse to obtain RM225.3 million in bribes for his party, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (from Nepturis Sdn Bhd, Azman Yusoff, KCJ Engineering Sdn Bhd, Bukhary Equity Sdn Bhd and Mamfor Sdn Bhd), and three counts of alleged money laundering involving money that Bersatu received from Bukhary Equity.

The trial before High Court judge Noor Ruwena Md Nurdin resumes tomorrow.