RETIRED deputy chief cabinet secretary Mazidah Abdul Majid’s testimony on ministers leaving meetings due to conflicts of interest has been delayed until a ministerial code of ethics can be produced in court.

The code is a guideline for how ministers should conduct themselves at cabinet meetings.

The decision was also made after Mazidah said she was unsure if her testimony would be in breach of the code and run afoul of the Official Secrets Act.

Lead defence counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah then requested that his cross-examination of Mazidah, 70, be adjourned to tomorrow.

Today, Mazidah told the high court of four cabinet meetings between 2011 and 2015 relating to SRC International. The meetings’ minutes, which were referred to in court but not read out, were declassified for this trial.  

Mazidah said ministers, including Najib former youth and sports minister Khairy Jamaluddin and former defence minister Hishammuddin Hussain, had excused themselves from cabinet meetings in the past due to conflicts of interest.

Mazidah said these ministers had left meetings when it appeared they had vested interest in the memorandums the cabinet was discussing.

She cited an occasion when Najib left a cabinet meeting because the memorandum they were discussing involved CIMB Bank. 

When asked why Najib left the meeting, Mazidah then addressed Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali to ask whether her response would be in breach of the Official Secrets Act. 

“If I am allowed to reveal this, I will,” she said. Ad hoc prosecutor V. Sithambaram then said the matter was for the current cabinet to decide. 

After Nazlan noted her testimony had been left “hanging”, Shafee said that the court could make a guess as Najib’s brother Nazir, had been the bank’s chairman at the time.

When Shafee asked why Khairy had left a meeting, Mazidah said it was because one of his family members was involved in the memorandum being tabled. 

Mazidah added that the ministers would usually leave a meeting voluntarily.

“In all my years in cabinet, the ministers would leave by themselves. Sometimes, other ministers would point out in the meeting that a particular minister had vested interest or the secretariat would inform the minister.”

Mazidah said she did not know that Najib was adviser emeritus of SRC International and that, had she known, she would have informed the Attorney-General’s Chambers as Najib did not excuse himself from meetings related to the government entity. 
 
“In my line of duty, if there is a conflict of interest, I will refer it to the Attorney-General’s Chambers. But I didn’t know, so I didn’t refer it to them.”

She had earlier testified that at a cabinet meeting on November 6, 2015, Najib, in his position as finance minister, tabled a memorandum seeking a RM100 million short-term loan from the government for a period of one month to pay off interests and late payment penalties known as “bai al-‘inah” to KWAP for a RM4 billion loan that SRC International had received.

Majidah said she was not aware of Najib’s vested interest in KWAP’s RM4 billion loan to SRC International when the RM100 million short-term loan was approved by the cabinet.

The trial continues tomorrow. – June 18, 2019.