KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 18 — The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) during the Muhyiddin administration had proposed contractors that passed the Finance Ministry’s evaluations and eventually won multi-million ringgit government projects under the Bumiputera contractors’ programme Jana Wibawa, a senior Finance Ministry (MOF) officer told the High Court today.

MOF government procurement division’s secretary Datin Rosni Mohd Yusoff, 54, said this while testifying as the 25th prosecution witness in Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia president and former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s power abuse and money laundering trial.

Rosni today said she chaired an MOF committee that evaluated whether contractors were qualified for Jana Wibawa projects.

This includes these three companies, which other witnesses in the trial had previously confirmed were awarded these multi-million ringgit Jana Wibawa projects:  

• KCJ Engineering Sdn Bhd: Awarded RM62 million contract via direct negotiation to build a new road connecting Felda Bukit Jalor to Gemas, Negeri Sembilan;
• Sutracom Sdn Bhd: Awarded RM605.2 million contract via pre-qualification tender to build and upgrade phase three of the Pulau Indah highway in Klang, Selangor;
• Nepturis Sdn Bhd: Awarded RM141 million contract via pre-qualification tender to build the Klang Utara district police headquarters (IPD).

Rosni said her committee had evaluated these contractors for Jana Wibawa projects after receiving their names from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), stressing that the committee would not have evaluated these companies if the PMO did not propose them.

For example, Rosni’s committee had evaluated KCJ Engineering after Muhyiddin’s office sent a November 13, 2020 letter to propose the company, and would not have done the evaluation if the letter did not state KCJ Engineering’s name.

“This is because evaluation will only be carried out on companies proposed by the Prime Minister’s Office,” she said today, adding that KCJ Engineering would not have been awarded the project by the Public Works Department (JKR) if it had not gone through the evaluation process.

“Throughout the Jana Wibawa programme, all proposals for names of contractors and projects implemented through direct negotiation were presented by the Prime Minister’s Office. No companies were appointed through direct negotiation without going through proposals from the Prime Minister’s Office and subsequently an evaluation process at MOF,” she said.

Rosni said KCJ Engineering had actually failed the first round of evaluations in December 2020 as it had a “sick” project and unsatisfactory work performance.

But Rosni said her committee had received the PMO’s February 3, 2021 letter containing additional information for several companies including KCJ Engineering in order to re-evaluate the company for the Jana Wibawa project, adding that this PMO letter was received via the Finance Minister’s office.

After receiving this PMO letter, Rosni said her committee held a meeting on February 26, 2021 to evaluate all the KCJ Engineering documents, adding that KCJ Engineering passed this second round of evaluations to be a Jana Wibawa contractor.

Rosni said the committee would not have carried out further action after KCJ Engineering failed the initial evaluation, if her division did not receive any instructions from the Finance Minister’s office based on the PMO’s February 2021 letter.

As for Sutracom and Nepturis, Rosni said her committee would not have carried out any evaluations on whether these two companies were qualified for Jana Wibawa projects, if they had not sent letters through the PMO to express interest in the projects and if the PMO had not forwarded those letters to the Finance Ministry.

“This is because the entire proposal for names of contractors and projects under the Jana Wibawa programme comes from the Prime Minister’s Office,” she said today.

She said her committee had evaluated these two companies as their names were stated in the PMO’s letters to the Finance Ministry in February 2021 and March 2021, pointing out that these companies would not have been eligible to join in the pre-qualification tender for Jana Wibawa programmes if they had not gone through the mandatory contractor evaluation process.

Earlier today, JKR’s former quantity surveyors’ service director Datuk Zulkipeli Yamat as the 24th prosecution witness agreed with Muhyiddin’s lawyer Chetan Jethwani that there was no interference by the PMO when Nepturis was selected to be the contractor for the Klang Utara IPD project.

Zulkipeli also confirmed to Chetan that the PMO was not involved and did not ask for information or follow up during the evaluation of tenders sent by three companies (including Sutracom) for the Pulau Indah project.

Previously, banking evidence and witness testimonies in this trial had shown that money from various companies had entered Bersatu’s bank accounts, including RM1 million from Nepturis and RM800,000 from KCJ Engineering.

Mamfor Sdn Bhd’s managing director Shahradzi Shamsuddin had previously also testified that his company donated RM19.5 million to Bersatu as his younger brother’s company Sutracom was awarded the RM605.2 million project.

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.