Former Perwaja Steel managing director Eric Chia had instructed his former assistant company secretary to backdate the acknowledgment of receipt of a letter stipulating the company's agreement to pay Japanese firm NKK Corporation RM76.4 million.

Perwaja Steel ex-assistant company secretary Tina Ong told the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court today that the directive was given via Chia's secretary, Azizan Kamaruddin, sometime between June and August 1994 - well after the payment was made to NKK on Feb 22, 1994.

"Azizan gave me the letter dated Jan 20, 1994 which was an addendum to the agreement signed earlier (between NKK and Perwaja Rolling Mills and Development in November 1993).

"He said that Chia's instructions was that I backdate my acknowledgment of the receipt," said Ong who was then responsible for keeping track of the company's business contracts.

"I had asked her (Azizan) the reason behind such an instruction but she said she did not know. After doing as instructed, I kept it together in the usual place where all agreements and documents were placed."

Ong said it was only later that she realised that she had made a mistake in backdating the letter as she had accidentally stamped '30th Dec, 1994' on it. She said she could not remember the date she wanted to stamp, but it was to be "no earlier than Jan 20, 1994".

"In September 1994 (the Perwaja's banking department head) Ahmad Zaini Othman pointed out the error it to me. Only then I had realised that I had made a mistake," she said.

No clarification

Ong was testifying at Chia's criminal breach of trust trial in which he is accused of making an unauthorised payment of RM76.4 million to NKK in 1994 via the accounts of Frilsham Enterprises Incorporated.

Chia is also facing an alternative charge of illegally entering into an agreement with NKK to dispose the RM76.4 million without the approval from Perwaja Steel's board of directors.

Under intense cross-examination by leading counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, Ong, who was later promoted to Perwaja's company secretary after Chia left in 1995, denied that she had fabricated the evidence against the business tycoon.

She said she had not fabricated evidence against Chia nor had she been instructed by someone else to do so, adding that she was aware of the seriousness and consequences of falsifying evidence.

Asked if she had become suspicious when Azizan told her of Chia's instruction, Ong replied that she had 'only wondered' but thought nothing of it further.

To a question, she admitted that she could have clarified the instruction personally with Chia whose office was near to hers but did not do so as 'it came from the his (Chia's) secretary'.

"I did not feel that the matter was important enough for me to seek Chia's clarification," she added.

Unknown company

Earlier, another prosecution witness Vicky Chan told the court that on Feb 17, 1994 she received a letter dated the same day from NKK demanding payment of 2.89 billion Yen (RM76.4 million) following a technical assistance agreement signed in November 1993 with Perwaja.

The former accounting manager then told her superior Lawrence Lim - then the company's corporate director - that she needed to examine the contract before issuing the payment. She said she was then referred to Ong.

"I went through the contracts with Ong but found that there was nothing mentioned about any payment. I then referred to NKK's letter to Lim. Lim later returned the letter to me and said that Chia had authorised the payment," she said.

She also said that there was a note attached to the letter in Chia's handwriting authorising the payment.

She said NKK's letter also demanded that payment be made to Frilsham, a company which she had never heard of prior to the incident.

"As far as I know, Perwaja never had any dealings with Frilsham before NKK made the demand for payment."

Hearing before Justice Akhtar Tahir continues tomorrow.