Ex-MoF man says repeatedly told to rush guarantee for RM2b loan, Najib was source of pressure

SRC Trial: Ex-MoF man says repeatedly told to rush guarantee for RM2b loan, Najib was source of pressure

Kenneth Tee
Malay Mail8 July 2019






Datuk Maliami Hamad, MOF Secretary Strategic Investment Department, is pictured at the Kuala Lumpur High Court July 8, 2019. — Picture by Ahmad ZamzahuriMore


KUALA LUMPUR, July 8 — A former Finance Ministry officer told the High Court today that orders came repeatedly from Datuk Seri Najib Razak to expedite a federal guarantee of SRC International’s Sdn Bhd’s first RM2 billion loan in 2014.

Maliami Hamad, formerly the secretary of the ministry’s Loan Management, Financial Market and Actuary Division, testified during Najib’s trial that the instructions came verbally via then Treasury secretary-general Tan Sri Wan Abdul Aziz Wan Abdullah and Najib’s ex-aide Datuk Azlin Alias.

Najib was both prime minister and finance minister at the time.

“For the preparation of the Cabinet memorandum, I was under pressure to expedite the document’s preparation to be presented to the Cabinet on August 17, 2014.

“Time was limited,” he said in his witness statement here.

Maliami added that apart from Azlin and Wan Abdul Aziz, similar instructions were communicated to him by SRC International.

“I know for a fact that instructions from Wan Abdul Aziz came from Najib and I believe Azlin’s instruction also came directly from Najib.

“The preparation instructions were issued to ensure the memorandum is prepared immediately for the Cabinet’s approval within the same week,” he said.

Maliami added that he also transmitted the same instructions and duress to his subordinates including Afidah Azwa Abdul Aziz, the ministry’s strategic investment department deputy secretary.

Afidah, the prosecution’s 41st witness, previously testified that she was instructed to prepare the internal memo and a Cabinet memorandum on the same day to be included for the Cabinet’s consideration on August 15, 2011.

She said she was informed by Maliami the need to expedite as it was the “prime minister’s company”.

Najib is on trial for seven money laundering and criminal breach of trust charges over RM42 million in SRC International, a former subsidiary of 1Malaysia Development Berhad.