KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 21 — The Finance Ministry (MOF) had initially wanted government projects under the Bumiputera contractors' programme Jana Wibawa to be carried out through open tender, but the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) had instructed for Jana Wibawa projects to be given out either by direct negotiation or through a pre-qualification tender, a senior MOF officer said today.
Datin Rosni Mohd Yusoff, who heads the Finance Ministry's government procurement division as its Under Secretary, said this as the 25th prosecution witness in former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin's power abuse and money laundering trial.
At the time of the Jana Wibawa programme during Muhyiddin's administration, Rosni was the deputy under secretary of the same division and also chaired a Finance Ministry committee that evaluated whether proposed contractors forwarded by the PMO were qualified to be given Jana Wibawa projects.
Today, Rosni explained why she had told the High Court that the prime minister has no power under the law and government procurement rules to order for a project to be awarded through direct negotiation to any specific company.
"Because the instruction that we received from PMO to carry out this project is through the Finance Minister's office. The Finance Minister instructed the procurement division to carry out evaluation.
"Initially, Jana Wibawa, we wanted to carry out through open tender, but we received instructions from PMO. The decision to determine the project through direct negotiation and pre-qualification came from PMO," she told the High Court.
In other words, Rosni said the PMO was deciding on which Jana Wibawa projects should be given out through direct negotiation or pre-qualification tender.
Rosni had previously said that it is actually the finance minister who has the power under government procurement rules to decide whether a project should be carried out through direct negotiation or pre-qualification tender.
Direct negotiation means that only a single contractor is considered for a project without competition from other contractors on factors such as prices, while pre-qualification tender is a form of limited tender where only pre-screened companies with the required experience, financial and technical capabilities are allowed to bid for a project.
What role did PMO play in government's procurement for these three Jana Wibawa projects?
In the Jana Wibawa programme, the PMO on November 13, 2020 gave a list of 54 proposed contractors for the Finance Ministry to evaluate for appointment as contractors for 54 projects through direct negotiation.
One of the 54 proposed contractors was KCJ Engineering Sdn Bhd, which initially failed an evaluation by Rosni's committee as it had a record of sick projects, before passing a second round of evaluation by the same committee due to additional information provided by the PMO on KCJ Engineering.
KCJ Engineering Sdn Bhd was later appointed as a contractor through direct negotiation for the RM62 million Jana Wibawa project to build a new road connecting Felda Bukit Jalor to Gemas, Negeri Sembilan.
Separately, the PMO had also in early 2021 forwarded several companies' names including Sutracom Sdn Bhd and Nepturis Sdn Bhd to the Finance Ministry for evaluation to join in pre-qualification tenders for two separate Jana Wibawa projects.
Under the pre-qualification tender method, Sutracom later won a RM605.2 million project to build and upgrade phase three of the Pulau Indah highway in Klang, Selangor, while Nepturis won a RM141 million contract to build the Klang Utara district police headquarters (IPD).
Today, Rosni confirmed that the PMO did not interfere in her committee's evaluation of these three contractors for the three Jana Wibawa projects, but stressed that the Finance Ministry's direction to her to evaluate was ultimately due to an instruction originating from the PM's office.
Rosni explained that PMO instructed the finance minister to evaluate these proposed Jana Wibawa contractors, and that the instruction then flowed down the hierarchy from the Finance Minister's office to her division's Under Secretary, and from the Under Secretary to her as the Deputy Under Secretary.
"When the decision was made, that decision did not have interference from PMO. But the instruction to evaluate these companies is from the PMO through the Finance Minister," Rosni told deputy public prosecutor Noralis Mat.
Explaining that this is the process in the civil service, Rosni agreed with Noralis that the Finance Ministry's instruction to her to evaluate these companies as potential Jana Wibawa contractors would not have come out of the blue.
Rosni said she had received instructions from her then superior, then Under Secretary Datuk Zamzuri Abdul Aziz, that MOF would process or evaluate companies' applications for Jana Wibawa projects that were forwarded by the PMO.
"I received instructions as Datuk Zamzuri informed to me, where he received instructions from higher-ups, for Jana Wibawa, we only process applications that come from PMO," she said.
Previously, Rosni said her committee at the Finance Ministry would not have evaluated KCJ Engineering, Sutracom and Nepturis if their names were not stated in the prime minister's letters to the Finance Ministry, as evaluations were only carried out on companies proposed by the PMO for Jana Wibawa projects.
PMO was not in MOF's evaluation meetings on Jana Wibawa contractors, but was updated of outcomes
Earlier, during cross-examination by Muhyiddin's lawyer Chetan Jethwani, Rosni confirmed that there were no representatives from the PMO in her committee's four meetings to evaluate KCJ Engineering, Sutracom and Nepturis and that this was intentional as the PMO is not supposed to be present.
Rosni confirmed to Chetan that the PM and the PMO were not involved in the decision-making at these four meetings, and there had been no attempt to interfere with the outcome of that decision-making and also no complaints of such attempts.
Rosni said there was no direct request from the PM or the PMO to her to ask about the outcome of the MOF meetings to evaluate the contractors.
But Rosni said that her committee's evaluation decision was notified to the Public Works Department (JKR) in letters that were copied to the PMO, adding that she had received instructions from her superior Zamzuri that the PMO had instructed for the decision to be copied to them.
Earlier, Rosni agreed with Muhyiddin's lawyer Datuk Amer Hamzah Arshad that contractors must go through her committee's evaluation for Jana Wibawa projects regardless of whether the project is via direct negotiation or pre-qualification tender.
Rosni agreed that this means that companies are not guaranteed to get the projects even if they were proposed to be appointed via direct negotiation, and agreed that KCJ Engineering's failure in the initial evaluation confirms this fact.
She agreed that the PMO gave additional information on KCJ Engineering because it received a request for additional information from the Finance Minister's then senior private secretary Datuk Wan Murtadza Wan Mahmud.
Among other things, Rosni told Amer that her committee checks potential Jana Wibawa contractors' beneficial ownership based on the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM)'s records and the Construction Industry Development Board's (CIDB) Centralized Information Management System (CIMS).
Rosni agreed that her committee would not be able to obtain such information if the companies did not declare their beneficial ownership to SSM or CIDB.
Rosni agreed with Amer's suggestion that the objective was to ensure that no "Ali Baba" companies would get Jana Wibawa projects and to ensure that Bumiputera companies are genuinely controlled by Bumiputera as registered.
Previously, evidence and testimonies from prosecution witnesses showed that Bersatu had received money in its bank accounts from companies that had won Jana Wibawa projects, namely RM800,000 from KCJ Engineering and RM1 million from Nepturis.
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 on Aug 26.
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