NAJIB Razak pushed for SRC International Sdn Bhd’s loan to be increased by RM1 billion at a private meeting with Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP) chairman Wan Abdul Aziz Wan Abdullah in 2011, the court heard today.

Wan Aziz, who was also Treasury secretary-general at the time, said KWAP’s investment panel decided at a meeting on July 5, 2011 that it could not approve a request by SRC International for RM3.95 billion, as it represented an “over-concentration” of risk.

He later met the former prime minister to convey the panel’s decision. Present at the meeting was SRC International CEO Azian Mohd Noor.

“After that, I met Najib at the prime minister’s office again, this time, relating to official Finance Ministry work.

“Najib asked me to expedite the approval of SRC International’s loan from KWAP. He also told me that a loan of RM2 billion would be sufficient, and not RM1 billion.

“This meeting involved only the both of us at the prime minister’s office,” he said, adding that he does not recall the date of the meeting, and he did not take official notes.

KWAP eventually disbursed a loan of RM2 billion to SRC International on August 29, 2011.

Soon after the private meeting, said Wan Aziz, he shared with Azian what Najib had told him.

The KWAP investment panel, chaired by Wan Aziz, was also informed of Najib’s request.

The matter was recorded in the minutes of an extraordinary panel meeting on July 19, 2011, in which members were told by Azian that Wan Aziz had communicated with Najib regarding SRC International’s loan application, and was directed, as KWAP’s representative, to expedite the approval process for a RM2 billion loan.

“I wish to state here that had there not been any commmunication from Najib to myself regarding SRC International’s loan from KWAP, the KWAP investment panel would have only approved as much as RM1 billion, the amount (earlier) deliberated on and approved by the panel,” testified Wan Aziz.

Najib’s charges are linked to RM4 billion in loans issued to SRC International in 2011 and 2012, for which he is accused of receiving RM42 million in his personal accounts in 2014 and 2015.

He faces three counts of criminal breach of trust, three counts of money-laundering and one count of abuse of power. – July 10, 2019.