A FORMER Economic Planning Unit (EPU) senior officer today told the court that 1MDB had requested for a RM3 billion grant to start SRC International.

The money would be used to venture into acquiring strategic stakes in key resource areas, such as coal and iron. 

Kamariah Noruddin, who was deputy director-general (macro) in the EPU, said the letter asking for the grant had come from 1MDB managing director Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi.

Testifying in the SRC International trial against former prime minister Najib Razak today, she said this was an awkward request as it came from a company instead of a ministry, as the EPU only deals with ministerial requests. 

She said the request for RM3 billion was denied but RM20 million was approved to start SRC international. 

“SRC was supposed to be a special vehicle to explore energy resources, such as oil and gas, coal, uranium, metal and aluminium.

“But as for oil and gas, we saw that Petronas was already the pioneer in oil and gas, and metal and aluminium was left to the private sector,” she said. 

She said she approved RM20 million for the coal and uranium exploration. 

Kamariah, who retired from civil service last year, said that she had sent a letter to Shahrol to inform the company about the RM20 million grant. 

“The PM’s Department and 1MDB had agreed with the RM20 million grant.

“The RM20 million was allowed basically for the starting of the SRC International company for due diligence and also to hire talent they required,” she said. 

She was questioned by deputy public prosecutor Mohd Ashrof Adrin Kamarul. – May 2, 2019.