KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 6 ― Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid today told the High Court that a businessman made threats against him for not giving a RM1.25 billion project to a company as instructed by then prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
Mahdzir, who was education minister from July 2015 to May 2018, described the frequent pestering by two businessmen, whom he labelled as being part of “Team Saidi” that was lobbying for the RM1.25 billion project from the Education Ministry.
These two businessmen were named as Jepak Holdings Sdn Bhd managing director Saidi Abang Samsudin and his business partner Rayyan Radzwill Abdullah. Both were seeking to get a project from the Education Ministry to implement a solar hybrid system to supply electricity to 369 rural schools in Sarawak.
Mahdzir today related an incident in 2016 when both Saidi and Rayyan met him in a hotel in Kuala Lumpur to express their dissatisfaction over the decision by him and the Education Ministry to appoint Jepak Holdings to only carry out a pilot project introducing solar energy for 28 schools.
The duo reminded Mahdzir that Najib had previously given instructions for him to cancel the existing power supply system involving diesel generators in Sarawak schools and to “proceed” with the new solar hybrid system project to Jepak Holdings.
“Saidi told me that they will meet ‘PM’ for that matter. Rayyan also issued threatening words to me by saying that I will not hold the post of education minister for long due to not following Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s orders.
“I only replied that it is up to them whether to meet Datuk Seri Najib Razak or anything else that they want to do,” Mahdzir said in court today, having noted that his decision on Jepak Holdings’ limited role was based on the ministry’s technical team’s recommendations.
Mahdzir was testifying today as the fifth prosecution witness against Najib’s wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor in her corruption trial for taking bribes totalling RM6.5 million in exchange for helping Jepak Holdings get the RM1.25 billion project.
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Who is on ‘Team Saidi’?
Based on Mahdzir’s testimony today, Najib’s two handwritten notes of instructions to him to give the RM1.25 billion project to Jepak Holdings came on forwarded letters that were originally sent by the company to Najib.
Mahdzir said his suspicions were aroused in the matter of this solar hybrid project, as Najib had issued the second handwritten note dated June 7, 2016 shortly after Saidi and Rayyan’s protest in the 2016 meeting and as Rosmah’s aide Datuk Rizal Mansor had telephoned Mahdzir regarding the project.
Mahdzir said he then asked Saidi who was behind the solar hybrid project, adding: “Saidi told me that Datin Seri Rosmah, Datuk Rizal Mansor and Datuk Aazmey from Pekan Umno, Pahang is ‘team’ Saidi.”
Datuk Aazmey Abu Talib is secretary of Pekan Umno, the same party division where Najib is currently its chief.
According to Mahdzir, Saidi had said the intervention of “Team Saidi” was required as he perceived Mahdzir and the Education Ministry to be slow to give out the contract to Jepak Holdings.
Mahdzir cited a June 8, 2016 incident where Rosmah had at a buka puasa event told him to expedite the project, which he said strengthened his belief of Rosmah’s involvement in the alleged “Team Saidi” and also said showed her authority when she as the prime minister’s wife dared to order him over the contract.
“I don’t know how Saidi and Rayyan dealt with Datuk Seri Najib Razak or the way they obtained the minutes from Datuk Seri Najib Razak,” the Umno vice-president and Padang Terap MP said.
Continual harassment
Mahdzir said Saidi and Rayyan had before September 2016 met him to ask about the status of the issuance of letter of award (LOA) of the RM1.25 billion project to Jepak Holdings, and that the duo had later continued to contact him to press him to speed up the contract award.
Mahdzir said the two even went to his office to find him after he ignored them but he told them he could not intervene in the matter that was then under the Finance Ministry.
He said he also avoided meeting the duo who were forcing him to help them expedite the contract award.
“Saidi told me previously that Datin Seri Rosmah has started to naik angin (get angry) due to the delay in issuance of LOA and asked me to expedite the matter,” he said.
However, he noted that Rosmah did not contact him at that time and that he told the duo to wait for the Finance Ministry as the Education Ministry had sent its application letter to the former ministry.
Mahdzir noted that Saidi and Rayyan went repeatedly to the Education Ministry office to ask officials there to speed up the project’s award to Jepak Holdings, with the duo also telling him that they had done the same at the Finance Ministry with such matters happening from September to October 2016.
Mahdzir said the Education Ministry subsequently issued a letter of intent to Jepak Holdings along with conditions for the company to comply with, adding that the two businessmen then again met him to express their dissatisfaction and anger at the letter’s requirement for the company to produce a detailed financial and technical proposal to the Education Ministry by November 20, 2016.
Mahdzir said that the duo pressed him to issue a LOA instead of a letter of intent even after he told them that this decision was based on the Education Ministry regulations, noting that both of them said they would complain to Najib.
“Saidi also told me Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor is already not ‘happy’ as the Education Ministry only issued a letter of intent. Rayyan told me that he himself will ask the prime minister to issue the LOA if the Education Ministry refuses to. I did not really heed them and told them it is up to them what they want to do,” Mahdzir said.
Mahdzir said he received a third handwritten note by Najib on November 8, 2016 instructing him to issue a LOA to Jepak Holdings based on the latter’s letter.
“When I received this letter, I felt as if pressured by ‘team’ Saidi to issue the LOA to Jepak immediately. The ‘Team’ Saidi that I meant is formed of Saidi, Rayyan, Datin Seri Rosmah, Datuk Rizal Mansor and Datuk Aazmey,” he said.
In Mahdzir’s testimony today, he had outlined the weaknesses of Jepak Holdings.
He cited a Education Ministry’s June 2016 memo on how the company did not present detailed costs for the installation and maintenance of the solar hybrid system, failure to appoint qualified consultants for the project proposal, and the inability to obtain further and complete information from discussions with Jepak Holdings.
Rosmah’s trial before High Court judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan resumes on Monday, where Mahdzir is expected to continue testifying.
