KUALA LUMPUR, July 6 — All of the Malaysian government’s projects under the Muhyiddin administration’s Jana Wibawa programme were awarded to contractors that had been proposed directly by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), former finance minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz said today.
Tengku Zafrul said this while testifying as the 11th prosecution witness in former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s power abuse and money laundering trial in connection to the Jana Wibawa project.
Tengku Zafrul served as the finance minister from March 2020 to August 2021 when Muhyiddin was the prime minister, and said his ministry’s role was only to screen and appoint these firms if they met the required conditions.
“Throughout the Jana Wibawa programme, all contractor companies that were awarded projects are companies that had been proposed by the Prime Minister’s Office only.
“The Finance Ministry’s role is only as the implementer in terms of evaluation and also to finalise the appointment of companies after passing the conditions and rules in force,” he told the High Court here.
Following Muhyiddin’s instruction in 2020 to the Finance Ministry to find solutions to help Bumiputera contractors during the Covid-19 crisis, Tengku Zafrul said the Finance Ministry had proposed the Jana Wibawa programme as an economic stimulus for Bumiputera contractors and the construction sector.
Under the Jana Wibawa programme, Tengku Zafrul said there were two types of methods where government projects were given out subject to the Finance Ministry’s approval: direct negotiation (a government contract is given to one company without an open tender and without competing on price with other contractors); and pre-qualified tender (pre-screened companies with the required experience, financial and technical capabilities are allowed to join in the tender).
Tengku Zafrul said the prime minister actually has no powers to decide if a Jana Wibawa project will be carried out through direct negotiation or pre-qualified tenders, and that it is instead the finance minister who has the power to approve the method used.
Tengku Zafrul as finance minister had in a July 23, 2020 letter proposed to Muhyiddin for the Jana Wibawa programme to be expedited, with the latter as PM in an August 3, 2020 minute stating he agreed with the programme and instructing for it to be expedited.
“If the prime minister did not agree with this proposal letter, the Jana Wibawa programme would certainly not be carried out,” he said today in court.
Muhyiddin suggested 54 contractors for 54 Jana Wibawa projects
On November 13, 2020, Tengku Zafrul had presented to the Cabinet about government procurement matters including the Jana Wibawa programme, and that the Cabinet’s discussions in the Muhyiddin-chaired meeting were only on Jana Wibawa as a policy and did not include the programme’s procurement methods.
On the same day as the Cabinet meeting, Muhyiddin had issued a letter to Tengku Zafrul to propose the appointment of 54 contractors for 54 projects under Jana Wibawa through direct negotiation.
Muhyiddin’s letter also included a list of the proposed projects and project value for the proposed contractors.
This letter was personally signed by Muhyiddin and had instructed the Finance Ministry to immediately consider his proposal, Tengku Zafrul said.
“I don’t know from where did Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin obtain the names of the 54 companies listed in this letter. I also don’t know how these 54 companies’ names could be listed in this letter,” Tengku Zafrul said, adding that these names did not come from him or the Finance Ministry.
Tengku Zafrul said he did not know if these companies had an interest in Muhyiddin as the latter never told him about it: “Tan Sri Muhyiddin also never told me that he and the Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia would receive donations from the companies listed in this letter.”
Tengku Zafrul said he had never received any donations or financial rewards from these 54 companies and do not know if these companies had ever donated to any political parties.
Tengku Zafrul said these 54 companies never met him or sent in application letters for the projects listed in Muhyiddin’s letter.
He confirmed that one of the 54 companies is KCJ Engineering Sdn Bhd, with the proposal listing this company for a RM100 million project to build a new road connecting Felda Bukit Jalor to Gemas, Negeri Sembilan.
Based on documents in court, KCJ Engineering had failed the Finance Ministry’s initial evaluation for the project, but had passed a second evaluation after the Prime Minister’s Office provided additional information on the company through a February 3, 2021 letter.
KCJ Engineering then received Tengku Zafrul’s approval on July 6, 2021 and was awarded the 34-month project through direct negotiation at RM62 million.
Previously, the court in this trial had heard that KCJ Engineering had given money to Muhyiddin’s party Bersatu via cheques.
Tengku Zafrul today said Muhyiddin had never informed him or the Cabinet that Bersatu had received donations from KCJ Engineering.
Two other projects to Sutracom and Nepturis
Tengku Zafrul said the Prime Minister’s Office had in a March 17, 2021 letter attached six companies’ application for a project to build and upgrade the Pulau Indah highway in Klang, Selangor, with Muhyddin signing a written minute there on March 16, 2021 saying “Agree with the pre-qualified method”.
He said this project was never advertised and the pre-qualified tender process meant only a few companies competed on price, and did not know how these companies found out about the project which they had applied directly to Muhyiddin.
Tengku Zafrul said he did not know these companies’ owners, and that they had never met him or applied through letters to him for the project.
He also said that he does not know if these companies had ever donated to any political parties.
Sutracom was eventually approved for this 36-month project and would receive RM605.2 million if it completes the project according to the contract, he said.
Similarly, Nepturis Sdn Bhd was eventually approved by the Finance Ministry for a RM141 million project to be completed in 191 weeks to build the Klang Utara district police headquarters in Selangor under Jana Wibawa.
The PMO’s February 3, 2021 letter to Tengku Zafrul came together with attached applications from five companies (including Nepturis) for the project, and Muhyiddin had in a written note said he agreed for it to be via pre-qualified tender.
Those five companies had written directly to Muhyiddin, with Tengku Zafrul saying he did not know why they had addressed it directly to the prime minister and the companies can actually also apply to the Finance Ministry or himself.
Tengku Zafrul said he did not know how these companies knew about the project’s existence.
Tengku Zafrul said Muhyiddin had never told him that Bersatu received donations from the companies in this letter, and also said he did not know if these companies had ever given donations to any political parties.
Based on previous court testimonies by bank employees and banking documents in this trial, four cheques from KCJ Engineering totalling RM800,000 were deposited into Bersatu’s CIMB account on October 12, 2022, while a RM1 million cheque from Nepturis was deposited into Bersatu’s AmBank account on February 21, 2022.
In this trial, Muhyiddin is facing seven charges, namely four counts of alleged power abuse to obtain RM225.3m bribes for Bersatu (from Nepturis, Azman Yusoff, Bukhary Equity Sdn Bhd, and Mamfor Sdn Bhd) and three counts of alleged money laundering through money that Bersatu received from Bukhary Equity.
The trial before High Court judge Noor Ruwena Md Nurdin resumes tomorrow, with Tengku Zafrul expected to continue testifying.
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