KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 6 ― Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak exerted pressure and even instructed the Education Ministry in 2015 to give out a solar hybrid project worth RM1.25 billion to a company run by a politician then with the Barisan Nasional (BN), the High Court heard today.

Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid, 59, said all these happened while he was education minister and that the BN man and his business partner had even cited Najib’s name to pressure him into giving out the contract.

Mahdzir was testifying as the fifth prosecution witness against Najib’s wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, where Rosmah is on trial for taking RM6.5 million bribes from Jepak Holdings Sdn Bhd’s managing director Saidi Abang Samsudin in exchange for helping the company get the RM1.25 billion contract for 369 rural schools in Sarawak.

Saidi was a member of then the Sarawak BN party Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB). The party later withdrew from the BN following the coalition’s defeat in the 2018 general election and has since formed a new alliance called Gabungan Parti Sarawak.

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Mahdzir said Saidi had told him that Jepak Holdings was a sub-contractor in the diesel generator project to supply electricity to rural Sarawak schools, and that the latter had proposed to take over from the existing contractors and to have his company implement a new solar hybrid project instead.

Mahdzir said he had then turned down Saidi’s idea as the Education Ministry was still bound to existing contracts with contractors of the diesel generator project, and was also doubtful of Jepak’s ability to carry out the solar hybrid project on such a large scale to supply electricity to 369 schools.

Mahdzir said he met Saidi in late 2015 with this proposal, just two to three months before Najib instructed for the solar hybrid project to be implemented.

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“On December 16, 2015, I received an order from Datuk Seri Najib Razak to implement Jepak’s solar hybrid project. That instruction was given to me through his minute on Jepak’s letter,” Mahdzir told the court.

Mahdzir was referring to a November 23, 2015 letter from Jepak to Najib as the prime minister, which was then forwarded to Mahdzir with the letter bearing a handwritten note signed off by Najib stating “Bersetuju dilaksanakan sistem baru ini dan batalkan sistem lama” (Agree to implement this new system and cancel the old system).

Noting that the new system referred to the RM1.25 billion solar hybrid project and that the old system referred to the existing diesel generator project, Mahdzir said: “In other words, Datuk Seri Najib had ordered me to replace the diesel generator project with Jepak’s solar hybrid project”.

This letter with Najib’s note came along with a December 1, 2015 letter from the Prime Minister’s Office to Mahdzir at his office at the Education Ministry’s office in Putrajaya.

Mahdzir said he had then asked the Education Ministry to form a technical team to review the costly and large-scale project proposed by Jepak and that he was not involved in such studies subsequently, while he was subsequently told in a January 2016 meeting with the Education Ministry’s secretary-general Tan Sri Madinah Mohamad and ministry legal adviser that the existing diesel generator contracts would only end on December 31, 2016 and sudden cancellations were not advised as there would be legal and financial consequences to the ministry.

Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid testified as as the fifth prosecution witness against Najib’s wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor. — Picture by Shafwan Zaidon
Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid testified as as the fifth prosecution witness against Najib’s wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor. — Picture by Shafwan Zaidon

Name-dropping

The court was told that Saidi and his business partner Rayyan Radzwill Abdullah badgered Mahdzir for the contract to be awarded to them by repeatedly dropping Najib’s name in their communication.

Mahdzir said Rayyan had started pressuring him from around April 2016, and had also demanded he just follow Najib’s instructions to give the solar hybrid project to Jepak and to skip the Education Ministry’s technical study of the project.

Apa yang kau susah sangat nak ikut arahan PM? PM dah bagi minit, you follow saja (What is so difficult for you to follow the PM’s instructions? PM already gave minute, you just follow),” Mahdzir said, recalling what Rayyan told him in Malay. 

Najib insists

Mahdzir said that later in May 2016, he decided to have Jepak carry out a pilot project to install solar panels in 28 schools in Sarawak instead of two other alternative options involving 140 schools or 358 schools, as Jepak’s proposal only had a lump sum calculation of operating costs without any detailed or specific planning to tailor the project to each school’s needs.

Mahdzir said both Saidi and Rayyan expressed their dissatisfaction on not being given the RM1.25 billion project and at plans to only appoint them for a pilot project and that Saidi had said they would tell Najib.

He said that it was then that he received further instructions from Najib on June 7, 2016 to give out the full project to Jepak.

Mahdzir cited Najib’s handwritten minute dated June 7, 2016 on a June 2, 2016 letter from Jepak to Najib, where the then prime minister had signed off on a note stating “Sila laksanakan seperti minit saya dulu” (Please implement as per my previous minute).

“I felt that Datuk Seri Najib Razak himself was giving me pressure through the minute dated June 7, 2016,” he said, adding that he had then instructed Madinah to expedite papers to the Finance Ministry in line with Najib’s further instruction to have Jepak’s project replace the existing project.

“Throughout my experience as Education Minister, I frequently receive Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s minute that agreed with implementation of company proposals but none were followed by such subsequent minutes,” Mahdzir said of his years as education minister from July 2015 until May 2018.

Mahdzir said he had in June 2016 suggested to Najib to use an open tender system to ensure fair competition and efficient service delivery instead of appointing Jepak through direct negotiations for the solar hybrid project.

But he said Najib ordered him to carry out his orders to give the contract directly to Jepak.

In his testimony, Mahdzir said Jepak then wrote to Najib to ask to expedite its appointment through direct negotiations.

He added that he found out that Najib had instructed the then Treasury secretary-general Tan Sri Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah to do the same.

Mahdzir said that Saidi and Rayyan became upset when they were given a letter of intent for the project and had said they would complain to Najib to have the goverment expedite the issuance of a  letter of award (LOA) to Jepak Holdings.

Mahdzir said Najib had later further instructed him with yet another handwritten note telling him to immediately issue the LOA for the project according to Jepak’s letter, with this minute written on a November 6, 2016 letter from Jepak to Najib and forwarded to Mahdzir together with a November 8, 2016 letter from the Prime Minister’s Office.

All the handwritten notes or minutes by Najib were also signed off by him, Mahdzir told the court today.

Mahdzir then noted a November 9, 2016 incident around 1 to 2pm when he met Najib in the foyer of the Cabinet meeting room at the Perdana Putra building in Putrajaya.

“I advised Datuk Seri Najib Razak to postpone the issuance of LOA to Jepak first as there were several procedures that Jepak and the Education Ministry had to comply with.

“Datuk Seri Najib Razak did not heed my advice and he ordered me to expedite action on his orders,” Mahdzir said.

In his testimony today, Mahdzir also testified of how he was pressed by Rosmah’s former aide Datuk Rizal Mansor and Rosmah herself on the project.

Rosmah’s trial before High Court judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan resumes on Monday, with Mahdzir expected to continue testifying.