SHAH ALAM – The high court was told today that Ultra Kirana Sdn Bhd (UKSB) sent letters relating to contract extension directly to former deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to speed up the process.
UKSB director Datuk Fadzil Ahmad said that the company was worried that the contract extension process would take a long time if the letters were handed to subordinates.
“The contract extension process needed to be presented at the ministry level, but the decision was made by the minister (Zahid). That’s why we at UKSB sent the letter to the minister.
“We use a top-down approach so that the process will be implemented immediately,” he said in response to an additional question during the main examination by deputy public prosecutor Zander Lim Wai Keong.
On why UKSB needed to send the letter to Zahid, who was home minister at that time, Fadzil replied: “Approval to extend the contract was under the purview of the minister.”
Yesterday, while reading his witness statement, the 41st prosecution witness told the court that the company sent seven letters to Zahid between 2016 and 2017 regarding the Foreign Visa System (VLN) to secure support, conditional application and approval.
Fadzil also informed the court today that another UKSB director, Wan Quoris Shah Wan Abdul Ghani, was the individual responsible for handing the company’s letters to Zahid.
“Wan Quoris Shah’s scope of assignments included ensuring the UKSB letters were sent to then home minister Zahid.
“I prepared (the letters), then I handed them to Wan Quoris Shah to be passed to the home minister’s office, but I’m not sure if he handed it directly or not,” he said.
The 10th prosecution witness and former secretary of the Home Ministry’s immigration affairs division, Datuk Shahril Ismail, had previously told the court that Wan Quoris Shah met with Zahid at the Umno president’s residence in Seri Satria, Putrajaya before a decision to extend the contract was made.
Fadzil said the company sent a letter dated June 14, 2017 to Zahid to change the contract extension application from six years to three years to avoid going through the Public-Private Partnership Unit (Ukas).
“The change of extension application was made after realising that a six-year period would require approval from Ukas that would take a long time. So we made the decision to shorten the extension period and not be subject to Ukas approval,” he explained.
Zahid, 69, is facing 33 charges of receiving bribes amounting to S$13.56mil (RM42mil) from UKSB as an inducement for himself in his capacity as a civil servant and the then home minister to extend the contract of the company as the operator of the One-Stop Centre in China and the VLN system as well as to maintain the agreement to supply VLN integrated system paraphernalia to the same company by the Home Ministry.
For another seven counts, Zahid is charged as home minister to have obtained for himself SG$1,15 million, RM3 million, €15,000 (RM69,279) and US$15,000 (RM65,675) in cash from the same company in connection with his official work.
He is alleged to have committed all the acts at Seri Satria, Precinct 16, Putrajaya and in Country Heights, Kajang between October 2014 and March 2018.
The trial before judge Datuk Mohd Yazid Mustafa will resume on May 17. – Bernama, May 12, 2022
