Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is seen at the Kuala Lumpur Courts Complex July 10, 2019. — Picture by Miera Zulyana
KUALA LUMPUR, July 10 — The Retirement Fund Incorporated (KWAP) only wanted to loan RM1 billion to SRC International Sdn Bhd but Datuk Seri Najib Razak personally gave instructions for the amount to be raised to RM2 billion in 2011, the High Court heard today.
Tan Sri Wan Abdul Aziz Wan Abdullah who was at that time the Treasury secretary-general testified in the ex-prime minister’s trial that Najib also instructed him to expedite the loan in a meeting that same year where only the two of them were present.
“He also informed me that an amount of RM2 billion was sufficient for SRC’s loan, but not with an amount of RM1 billion,” the 45th prosecution told the court, but said he did not write down the instructions during those meetings.
Instead, Wan Abdul Aziz said he relayed the instructions from Najib to KWAP’s Investment Panel on July 19, 2011 and that it subsequently approved RM2 billion as SRC International’s first loan.
“I would also like to state here that if there was no communication from Datuk Seri Najib to me concerning SRC’s loan from KWAP, the KWAP Investment Panel would have maintained the approval of a RM1 billion loan only, as initially considered and approved by the KWAP Investment Panel,” he read out his witness statement in the stand.
Wan Abdul Aziz who has also been a former KWAP chairman said SRC International had asked for a RM3.95 billion loan in June 2011.
He said KWAP’s Fixed Income Department initially only wanted to loan RM1 billion to SRC International, citing risks of overconcentration.
The department felt that the requested RM3.95 billion was a large investment for one company in the industry.
He told the court that a member from the Investment Panel suggested that Najib be told about the significantly smaller approved loan amount, pending additional information from SRC International about its business plan.
Wan Abdul Aziz said he and KWAP’s then chief executive Datuk Azian Mohd Noh conveyed the revised loan amount to Najib in a meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office in Putrajaya.
He added that the three-person meeting preceded his second more personal meeting with Najib where the latter ordered him to double the loan to RM2 billion.
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