A SENIOR Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP) legal officer continues his testimony today, the 17th day of Najib Razak’s trial, with the focus expected to be on the manner in which RM4 billion in loans to SRC International Sdn Bhd was approved in 2011 and 2012.

Prosecutors accuse the former prime minister of money-laundering, criminal breach of trust and power abuse in relation to RM42 million that made its way from those loans into his personal bank accounts in 2014 and 2015.

The prosecution’s 35th witness, Azlida Mazni Arshad, who is vice-president of KWAP’s legal and secretarial department, returns to the stand to produce five original documents relating to the loans.

Only copies of the documents were submitted to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission four years ago, she told the court last week.

The original documents sought by prosecutors are draft proposals of loan applications submitted by KWAP’s fixed income department for the consideration of the fund’s investment panel.

Azlida had testified that Najib ordered KWAP chairman Wan Abdul Aziz Wan Abdullah to expedite the approval process for the first RM2 billion loan. She said former KWAP chief executive Azian Mohd Noh told this to an investment panel meeting on July 18, 2011.

Despite questions on the ability and qualification of SRC International’s management in making profitable investments, and a lack of urgency in giving the RM2 billion loan in a lump sum, KWAP’s investment panel went ahead with approving the loan.

Azlida said the panel also viewed the RM2 billion loan proposal as being too large for a company with a paid-up capital of RM2.

Six panel members approved the loan using the “circular paper” method via reply forms. They were Wan Aziz, who was also the then Treasury chief secretary; investment panel chairman Mohammed Azlan Hashim; former minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Abdul Wahid Omar; Norizah Bahari; Cheah Tek Kuang; and, Che’ Zakiah Che’ Din.

A second loan of RM2 billion was tabled to the panel on March 20, 2012.

Former KWAP fixed income department assistant vice-president Amirul Imran Ahmat last week testified that a letter of guarantee signed by Najib was the sole “selling point” for the approval of the second loan. By then, the ownership of SRC International had been transferred from 1Malaysia Development Bhd to Ministry of Finance Inc.

The Malaysian Insight brings you today’s proceedings live:

3.40pm: Harvinderjit has stopped his cross-examination for the day. He apologises to Justice Nazlan for starting the trial late today.

Nazlan adjourns court for today.

Court resumes at 9am tomorrow.

3.35pm: Harvinderjit tells Justice Nazlan that he has a few more questions for the witness and that the session may be “lengthy” – approximately 40 minutes more.

Nazlan asks Harvinderjit to continue for another 10 minutes.

3.08pm: Prosecution lawyer V. Sithambaram objects to Harvinderjit’s line of questioning, saying it amounts to conjecture as the latter is asking for witness opinions.

3.05pm: Harvinderjit continues grilling Azlida on the terms of the loan agreements.

2.30pm: Azlida tells the court that no government guarantee was proposed by SRC International when the investment panel deliberated whether to approve its RM1 billion loan.

2.04pm: Court resumes after a half an hour break, with Harvinderjit continuing his cross-examination.

H: Can the investment panel question the CEO on investments if the CEO approves an investment paper? 

A: Yes.

H: The fact that the investment panel deferred the loan pending more information from SRC; it shows there was no compulsion from the panel to rush the loan? 

A: Yes.

12.41pm: H: If an investment in KWAP records has gone through all levels of approval, you would agree on record that process (requirements) have been met? 

A: Yes.

H: In KWAP, you have an open-door policy, where if you aren’t happy with something, you can voice it out. 

A: Yes.

H: There are no minutes in an investment panel meeting where the panel has said, “We have no choice but to give them the loan”. 

A: No.

12.33pm: Harvinderjit asks if the panel can defer its decision to approve loans until it is satisfied. Azlida agrees.

12.31pm: Harvinderjit says that the investment panel knows that the responsibility of approving a loan is theirs and theirs alone. She agrees.

Harvinderjit says that the panel is not bound by the instruction of any minister or prime minister. Azilda agrees.

Harvinderjit says if the investment panel agrees that a loan that is not remunerative, then it goes against the Act.

12.21pm: Harvinderjit asks if the investment panel can meet with loan applicants and deal with them directly. He also asks whether it can amend any recommendations in the loan paper. Azlida answers yes to both questions.

She also acknowledges that the investment panel has the power to disburse loans on its own terms and conditions.

H: If it had found that the investment paper was lacking, it can send it back to the department and say it’s lacking. 

A: Yes, it can do that.

12.17pm: Harvinderjit continues questioning Azlida on KWAP’s loan approval processes and its investment panel.

12.14pm: Court resumes.

11.57am: Court takes a 5-minute break.

11.50am: Harvinderjit begins questioning the witness on KWAP’s loan application processes and the departments involved in sanctioning them.

11.40am: Azilda says six panel members approved a RM1 billion loan to SRC International.

11.21am: Harvinderjit says that the reason two members of the Finance Ministry are in the panel is to safeguard the interest of the federal government. She agrees.

11.06am: Harvinderjit asks her that when KWAP chairman Wan Abdul Aziz Wan Abdullah gives an instruction for a loan to be approved, whether it would it be followed. She says yes.

H: Is the investment panel the final decision-making body in KWAP? 

A: In investment matters, yes.

H: By practice, there are two members of the Finance Ministry on the panel. 

A: Yes, according to the Act. 

H: The Act goes on to say that the CEO of KWAP is the secretary of the investment panel? 

A: Yes, the CEO is the secretary of the panel.

H: Are there loans given every year to the federal government? 

A: Yes.

10.57am: Azlida says MACC officers Ashraff and Rosli questioned her and took her statement.

10.49am: The SRC International trial resumes with Azlida returning to the stand to produce five original documents related to the RM4 billion in loans. She is cross-examined by Harvinderjit Singh. She says she was questioned “about three times” in 2015 by MACC on the matter.

10.45am: Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali is presiding over the mention of Najib and former Treasury secretary-general Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah’s criminal breach of trust case involving RM6.64 billion. It is also known as the IPIC, or International Petroleum Investment Company, case.

Nazlan sets January 6, 2020 as the trial’s start date, and April 30 the same year as its last day.

10.36am: The court is in session.

10.31am: Shafee and his team enter the courtroom, along with Najib, who takes a seat in the public gallery.

10.05am: After waiting almost an hour, Najib leaves the courtroom with his aides. They are seen chatting on public benches outside the courtroom.

9.22am: Najib is present, seated in the public gallery. His lead counsel, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, is at another court, appearing before judge Colin Lawrence Sequerah regarding matters related to his RM9.5 million money-laundering case. – May 14, 2019.