Kuala lumpur: The High Court was told today that KCJ Engineering Sdn Bhd had initially failed the third stage of a contractor evaluation due to its involvement in a troubled project and unsatisfactory performance on ongoing projects before the company was subsequently recommended for a project under the Jana Wibawa Programme. Finance Ministry (MoF) government procurement division secretary, Datin Rosni Mohd Yusoff, who was then secretary of the Government Investment Companies Division at the ministry, said KCJ Engineering had passed the first and second stages of the evaluation but failed the third stage, which assessed its technical capability.
According to BERNAMA News Agency, Rosni confirmed that KCJ Engineering was evaluated by the Contractor Evaluation Committee through three stages of the Evaluation Methodology, namely the first-stage evaluation involving mandatory requirements, the second-stage evaluation involving financial capability and the third-stage evaluation involving technical capability. 'I confirm that the comments and recommendations of the Contractor Evaluation Committee stated in the minutes of the committee's meeting dated Feb 26, 2021 were that the committee found KCJ Engineering to have passed the evaluation criteria. The Contractor Evaluation Committee therefore recommended KCJ Engineering for the implementation of this project through direct negotiation with the Finance Minister,' she said in her witness statement, adding that the engineering and construction company had applied to undertake the project to construct a new road connecting Felda Bukit Jalor to Gemas, Negeri Sembilan.
The 25th prosecution witness said this during the trial of former Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is facing seven charges of abuse of power and money laundering involving projects under the Jana Wibawa Programme. Rosni, who was also chairman of the Contractor Evaluation Committee for the Jana Wibawa Programme, said the decision that KCJ Engineering had failed the third-stage evaluation was made at the committee's meeting on Dec 15, 2020, following a proposal by Muhyiddin, who was Prime Minister at the time, for the appointment of the company.
She said the MoF subsequently received a letter from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) requesting that KCJ Engineering be re-evaluated, adding that the committee's decision was not shared with any party. Previously, former Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz testified that KCJ Engineering was among 54 companies proposed by the then prime minister in a letter dated Nov 13, 2020 to undertake projects under the Jana Wibawa Programme through direct negotiation.
Asked by Deputy Public Prosecutor Noralis Mat what the Contractor Evaluation Committee would have done if the PMO had not submitted a letter to the MoF concerning KCJ Engineering, and the company had failed any of the evaluation stages, Rosni said the process would have stopped at that point. She said that following the re-evaluation, the Contractor Evaluation Committee, at its meeting on Feb 26, 2021, found that KCJ Engineering had met all the required criteria across the three evaluation stages. 'We prepared an approval memorandum to recommend the company as the contractor for the project through direct negotiation,' she said.
In an earlier proceeding, Maybank Shah Alam branch operations officer Chang Hui Chin, 50, told the court that four deposits totalling RM800,000 were made by KCJ Engineering into Bersatu's account on Sept 1, 2022. Muhyiddin, 79, faces four charges of using his position as then Prime Minister and Bersatu president to obtain RM225.3 million in bribes for the party in connection with Jana Wibawa projects, and three money laundering charges involving RM200 million. The charges were framed under the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009 and the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001. The trial before Judge Noor Ruwena Md Nurdin continues tomorrow.