A key witness in former Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng’s corruption trial today denied that he was coached by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on how to testify in court.
Azli Adam, who is former senior vice-president of Consortium Zenith BUCG Sdn Bhd, also said he was not taught to change his story either by the MACC, the prosecution or any other party involved in the trial.
He further denied being instructed by his former boss, Datuk Zarul Ahmad, to testify that the money was meant to be paid to the former finance minister.
CZBUGC is the company that was awarded the RM6.3 billion Penang undersea tunnel project.
Azli said he was unaware whether his boss actually paid the alleged bribes to the Bagan member of parliament.
“I was instructed to withdraw the money by my boss (Zarul).
“Only he knew where the monies went to,” he said during a cross-examination by Lim’s lead counsel Gobind Singh Deo.
Azli, who testified as the 24th prosecution witness last year, revealed how bribe money given to Lim on numerous occasions was covered up using fake invoices and payment vouchers to hide the money trail.
Azli, who was in charge of the company accounts, detailed how this started happening on the instructions of company owner Zarul.
The 59-year-old outlined the chronology of events and modus operandi adopted by the company in the preparation of invoices and payment vouchers for the bribe money given to Lim, who is also DAP national chairman.
He said there were several payments made by companies under Zarul, namely Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd and CZBUCG, between 2012 and 2017.
Azli said money was withdrawn from these companies and he was then instructed by Zarul to prepare dummy invoices and payment vouchers to dormant companies which he named as Sinar Bina Consultancy Services (SBCS), Bintang Ria Engineering (BRE), JKM Konsortium Sdn Bhd (JKMKSB) and Jurutera Konsult Maju Sdn Bhd (JKMSB).
However, he said Zarul had informed him that the cash was actually given to Lim as a bribe and also to pay for his boss’s personal debt.
He said the main source of revenue for companies under Zarul at that time was payments he received from the land swap deal with the Penang government for Lots 702 and 713 in return for the tunnel project.
In June last year, Zarul testified that he paid RM3.3 million in bribes to Lim to secure the Penang undersea tunnel project.
Zarul said he paid the money in stages from August 2013 after his company was awarded the three paired roads and undersea tunnel project by the Penang government.
Lim is facing four charges of using his position as the then chief minister to solicit gratification to help Zarul’s company secure the tunnel project.
He is alleged to have sought 10 percent of the profit to be made by the company from Zarul.
He is also accused of receiving RM3.3 million for himself and causing two plots of land belonging to the state government to be disposed of by two companies linked to the tunnel project.
The trial before Sessions judge Azura Alwi continues. – NST