Businessperson donated RM19.5m to Bersatu in bid for Jana Wibawa project, court hears

A businessperson revealed in Kuala Lumpur High Court today that he had donated RM19.5 million to Bersatu in 2021 and 2022 while bidding for a construction project under Jana Wibawa.

Mamfor Sdn Bhd managing director Shahradzi Shamsuddin said the donation was made in two payments – RM10.5 million before one of the companies he bid for won the project and the remaining RM9 million after.

The 20th prosecution witness in an ongoing corruption trial involving Muhyiddin Yassin attributed his donation to Azman Yusoff, an individual linked to one of the charges against the former prime minister.

Shahradzi claimed that Azman contacted him in July 2021, saying he would assist in obtaining a project under the programme and asked him to donate to Bersatu without stating any specific amount.

“He (Azman) informed me that the project was likely to succeed. Therefore, he asked me to contribute to Bersatu. He did not specify the amount.

“I confirm that the total amount I donated to Bersatu was RM19.5 million,” he said in his witness statement.

Shahradzi also said that he had borrowed money from two companies, Majulia Sdn Bhd and Sutracom Sdn Bhd, owned by his mother and his brother, Shahrin, respectively, to make the donation.

He added that he had chosen to donate RM19.5 million, which was around three to four percent of the total project worth, based on his experience as a contractor and that he would update Azman once the donation was made.

However, during examination in chief by deputy public prosecutor Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin, the witness revealed that he would not even donate RM100 to the party unless he was instructed to.

Cheques handover

Shahradzi further said the donations were paid via cheques, which he left with Bersatu’s receptionist through several trips to the party’s headquarters in Petaling Jaya.

“I had originally intended to meet (then-Bersatu treasurer-general) Salleh Baijuri to hand over the cheques. (However) he was not there whenever I went to the office.

"Consequently, I handed the cheques over to the staff member on duty at that time, whose name I do not recall, as I dealt with different individuals on each visit,” he said.

During cross-examination by Muhyiddin’s lawyer Chetan Jethwani, Shahradzi revealed that he had neither contacted nor made any appointments with Salleh to hand over the cheques.

The witness also revealed that he did not personally know Muhyiddin and that he never met the Bersatu president.

He further said that Muhyiddin’s position, whether as a prime minister or Bersatu’s president, does not matter to him because Azman was the one who asked him to donate.

Direct negotiation

Shahradzi said before donating, he had approached an individual named Ayob, known to him as a close acquaintance of Muhyiddin, to ask for the Bersatu president’s support for a direct negotiation.

“Around December 2020, I sought Ayob’s assistance to hand-deliver a letter to Muhyiddin on behalf of Sutracom, applying for the Lingkaran Pulau Indah Fasa 3 project via direct negotiation. I’m unsure of Ayob’s subsequent action.

“In early 2021, Ayob informed me that Muhyiddin had minuted my letter of interest with ‘no objection’. However, he also informed me that I needed to prepare letters to apply for the project through the pre-qualification process.

“(This is because) the government no longer permitted the appointment of contractors via direct negotiation,” he said.

Shahradzi then prepared letters of intent for six companies, including his mother’s and Shahrin’s, to bid for a project under the programme.

Sutracom, he further said, eventually won the tender for the project worth RM605,217,790 in February 2022.

“I borrowed G7 contractor licences belonging to my acquaintances and family members (to) secure the project, having first obtained their consent.

“The reason I borrowed the licences was that my own company, Mamfor Sdn Bhd, lacked the necessary licence and capacity.

“The practice had become routine for me whenever I sought to apply for letters of intent to secure government projects, ever since I ventured into the construction contracting business,” he explained, adding that he did not even know the name of the project under Jana Wibawa at that time.

Muhyiddin is on trial for abuse of power and money laundering involving RM255.3 million.

The charges were related to Jana Wibawa, a project introduced while he was prime minister between 2020 and 2021 to accelerate project implementation and boost the country’s economy during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The trial before judge Noor Ruwena Nurdin continues tomorrow.

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