Letter sent direct to Zahid to expedite contract extension process - UKSB director

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 Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to speed up the process.

UKSB director Datuk Fadzil Ahmad said if the letters were handed to subordinates, the company worried that the contract extension process would take a long time.

"The contract extension process needed to be presented at ministry level, but the decision is made by the minister (Ahmad Zahid), that's why we at UKSB acted to send 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 Ahmad 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 Ahmad 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 Ahmad Zahid.

"Wan Quoris Shah scope of assignments included ensuring the UKSB letters were sent to then-Home Minister Ahmad Zahid.

"I prepared (the letters), then I would hand 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, former secretary of the Immigration Affairs Division, Home Ministry , Datuk Shahril Ismail had previously told the court that Wan Quoris Shah met with Ahmad 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 Ahmad 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 to be subjected to UKAS approval," he explained.

Ahmad 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 (OSC) 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, Ahmad Zahid was charged as home minister to have obtained for himself SG$1,150,000, RM3mil, EURO15,000 and US$15,000 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