FORMER education minister Mahdzir Khalid had personally written to Najib Razak to ask for special exemption in the procurement process for a solar system and maintenance and operations of diesel generators for schools in rural Sarawak, a witness in the Rosmah Mansor corruption trial said.

Former Education Ministry asset acquisition and management department secretary Kamarudin Abdullah was referred to a letter dated July 19, 2017, which was from Mahdzir to Najib who was then prime minister and finance minister.

The letter, requesting the exemption, was approved by Najib in his capacity as the finance minister.

During cross examination by defence counsel Azrul Zulkifli Stork, Kamarudin said the letter was written by Mahdzir and that he was not informed about it.

Kamarudin said Mahdzir had allegedly requested that the Finance Ministry released an interim payment to Jepak Holdings Sdn Bhd for work supplying diesel to schools in Sarawak from January to April 2017.

Kamarudin said as per the letter of award issued to Jepak on November 10, 2016, this was one of the terms of the contract.

Azrul: Letter from minister?

Kamarudin: Yes. The minister himself issued this letter. You can see the letterhead. It did not go through me.

Azrul: So if those payments were not released, the schools would have problems?

Kamarudin: Yes. The schools would be in darkness.

Kamarudin said the Finance Ministry had reservations on the solar hybrid project from the beginning, as Jepak did not follow the rules and the working process. There were no price negotiations and technical evaluation conducted before the contract was awarded to Jepak.

Azrul: So the minister wrote the letter to ask for these to be exempted?

Kamarudin: Yes.

Re-examined by deputy public prosecutor Poh Yih Pinn, Kamarudin said he had received a copy of the letter from Mahdzir to Najib.

He was also asked how the minister would have obtained the necessary information to write the letter. Kamarudin replied that Mahdzir’s special officers could have provided the minister with the information.

Kamarudin is the 10th prosecution witness to testify in Rosmah’s trial. She faces three corruption charges, one of which is of soliciting RM187.5 million from Jepak Holdings’ managing director Saidi Abang Samsudin as inducement to help his company secure a RM1.25 billion contract for a solar project in Sarawak.

The 69-year-old Rosmah is also accused of receiving bribes totalling RM6.5 million from Saidi in 2016 and 2017.

In Mahdzir’s testimony earlier, he had claimed that Rosmah’s former aide, Rizal Mansor had asked him to draft a letter to seek the exemption.

Mahdzir had testified that he then asked his officer to prepare the letter.

“Following a cabinet meeting on July 19, 2017, I gave the letter personally to Najib. I told him the letter is in regard to Jepak and that there were issues with regard to payment.

“I asked him whether he could grant a special exemption on the financial procedure to allow for the payment to be made to Jepak,” Mahdzir had read from his statement in his testimony earlier.

Najib had then written a note, on the letter, addressed to then Treasury deputy secretary-general Othman Semail: “Agree to allow the special exemption as requested. Please proceed.” – March 10, 2020.