A former Perwaja Steel director accused of making "unsubstantiated allegations" against the company's chief Eric Chia to the then finance minister Anwar Ibrahim said today that he was never given the opportunity to defend himself.

Prosecution witness Nik Mohd Affandi Nik Yusoff told the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court that Chia made the accusations against him before other members of the board on May 28, 1994 in his absence.

"I was not there when he (Chia) made the allegations. I was also not there when the board met subsequently to approve the minutes of the meeting stating the allegations. But when I attended the third subsequent meeting, no one raised the issue," said Nik Affandi.

"Until today, I was never given the opportunity to reply to the allegations or defend myself."

He also denied that he had written to Japanese and European companies - which had dealings with Perwaja- divulging the company's internal problems, as alleged by Chia.

On Dec 9 last year, the defence - in a bid to support a claim of conspiracy to oust Chia from Perwaja allegedly involving Anwar- informed the court of the alleged letter.

Disloyalty

In exposing the letter, Chia had severely criticised Nik Affandi and his views were adopted by the board who had then unanimously expressed its regret and disappointment that Nik Affandi had chosen to write directly to the minister without substantiating the allegations to the board or Chia himself.

The board had also condemned Nik Affandi's act as "it tantamounts to disloyalty to the company and grievous failure to perform his director's duties" and that he (Nik Affandi) was not in the position to make correct assessments on Perwaja.

He was testifying against Chia who is charged with making an unauthorised payment of RM76.4 million to NKK Corporation (Japan) on Feb 22, 1994 via the accounts of Frilsham Enterprises Incorporated.

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

He is charged under section 409 of the Penal Code which carries a maximum 20-year jail sentence.

No meeting

In his testimony today, Nik Affandi also said that the tender committee that was established to filter the award of tenders in Perwaja was never activated.

This is despite Anwar's clear direction that all tenders above RM15 million must be vetted by the committee before being approved by the board as stated in the company's contract procedure which was effective from February 1993.

"He (Chia) had asked the contract procedure to be deferred but the minister made it clear that he wanted the contract procedure to be enforced. However, while I was sitting in the board between June 1994 and December 1994), the committee - headed by Chia - had never convene any meeting."

The hearing before sessions judge Akhtar Tahir continues on Feb 22.