KUALA LUMPUR, May 6 — The Finance Ministry had asked civil servants’ pension fund KWAP to release the second batch of RM2 billion to SRC International Sdn Bhd before the fund received a government guarantee for the 2012 loan, the High Court heard today.
Former KWAP official Amirul Imran Ahmat, 39, testified that the fund received a letter dated March 28, 2012 from the ministry.
Amirul Imran said the letter was the Malaysian government’s agreement to guarantee a RM2 billion 10-year loan to SRC International in line with the Cabinet’s approval on February 8, 2012.
“The letter also requested KWAP to consider releasing the loan funds first and the Finance Ministry gives the undertaking to submit the government guarantee latest within 10 days,” Amirul Imran.
When asked by deputy public prosecutor Datuk Ishak Mohd Yusoff if he had ever come across such practice where money was released before a government guarantee was received, Amirul said, “Never”.
Amirul Imran testified that KWAP had on March 23, 2012 issued a letter of offer for the RM2 billion loan to SRC International, while the loan agreement between KWAP and SRC International was signed days later on March 27.
Amirul Imran also testified to having sighted a letter of the government’s guarantee dated March 27, 2012 for the RM2 billion loan, which he said was signed off by Datuk Seri Najib Razak as the prime minister and finance minister then.
It is not known if the government guarantee letter was received by KWAP on March 27, 2012 itself or on another date, as Amirul did not mention this.
Amirul said KWAP later received a request from SRC International for the RM2 billion funds to be put into the company’s AmIslamic Bank account 2112022010650.
Amirul testified that KWAP investment support services department’s Amirah Muhamad Nor had on March 28, 2012 informed him that KWAP had released the RM2 billion sum and transferred it to SRC International’s account.
With the loan application dated March 13, 2012, this would mean the entire loan approval process for the RM2 billion borrowed in 2012 by SRC International took about two weeks.
For SRC International’s first loan of RM 2 billion from KWAP in 2011, the company had in June 2011 initially applied for a loan of RM3.95 billion, based on Amirul Imran’s testimony last week.
After a process that included the seeking of additional documents from SRC International, the Finance Ministry had in an August 22, 2011 letter informed KWAP that the Malaysian government had agreed to guarantee a RM2 billion loan for SRC International.
KWAP then issued a letter of offer on August 23, 2011 that was received by SRC International on August 26, 2011, Amirul Imran had said.
The loan agreement for the RM2 billion loan was signed on August 26, 2011, which was the same day as the date of the government guarantee letter signed by then Finance Minister II Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah and also when SRC International requested for the RM2 billion to be placed into its AmIslamic Bank account 2112022009-736.
Amirul Imran had also last week testified that KWAP would usually require many additional documents to support any loan application, but said the fund had not received such required documents during SRC International’s first loan application in 2011.
Amirul Imran is the 29th prosecution witness in Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s trial over funds belonging to SRC International, which was formerly a subsidiary under 1Malaysia Development Berhad before being transferred to be under the Finance Ministry’s Minister of Finance (MOF) Inc.
Amirul Imran was assistant vice-president of KWAP’s Fixed Income Department from January 2011 to August 2013, and was involved with the drafting of proposed investment papers and the seeking of supporting documents that eventually led to loans totalling RM4 billion to SRC International.
Today is the 13th day of the former prime minister’s trial on seven charges of abuse of position, criminal breach of trust, money-laundering of RM42 million of funds belonging to SRC International.
The trial is before High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali.
