Ex-SRC International director Tan Sri Ismee Ismail is pictured at the Kuala Lumpur Court Complex June 10, 2019. — Picture by Hari Anggara
KUALA LUMPUR, June 10 — Former SRC International director Tan Sri Ismee Ismail said he expressed concerns about the firm’s corporate governance and financial practices to former chief executive Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil, the High Court heard today.
Testifying in former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s trial, Ismee said that Nik Faisal would seek to allay these by saying the firm had already dealt with the issues.
“Concerning daily operations of SRC International, I had also raised questions on issues of SRC’s governance.
“Nik Faisal would usually reply saying the matter in question had already been discussed and was approved by the ‘government’.
“In my opinion, the ‘government’ he mentioned was actually referring to Datuk Seri Najib,” he said when reading out his statement before Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali.
Ismee, who was appointed as director in August 2011, said he resigned three years later after failing to accept Nik Faisal’s corporate practices.
“I resigned because I did not subscribe to the style of management that was being practised by its CEO Nik Faisal especially concerning the company’s accounts and finances,” he read from his statement during examination in chief by deputy public prosecutor Datuk Ishak Mohd Yusoff.
These practices include Nik Faisal being the exclusive link between the company’s board of directors and Najib who was its advisor emeritus.
Ismee also said that all board decisions had to be referred to Najib for his advice and consent.
“If there was anything that needed to be brought to the attention of Datuk Seri Najib, it would be carried out by Nik Faisal because only he functioned as the direct link between the SRC’s board of directors and Datuk Seri Najib,”
Ismee, the 39th witness at Najib’s RM42 million SRC International trial, said he took the arrangement to mean that all matters and discussions at SRC International would be communicated by Nik Faisal to Najib.
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