Faiza Zulkifli, who served as the legal adviser from 2007 to 2013, said the copy of the contract, known as the “preliminary agreement for the privatisation of the major roads and tunnel project”, was never passed to her for checking.

She said Lim, who was then chief minister, had appointed the law firm of Lee Hishammuddin Allen & Gledhill to draft and execute the contract.

“I abided by the chief minister’s decision to appoint private lawyers in this matter,” she said.

“He needed to make sure the lawyers were duty-bound in protecting the state government’s interests in the project.”

She said that in “normal situations”, state legal advisers were provided with copies of contracts inked with private companies.

“We will ensure that the contents are done in accordance with the law,” she said.

Faiza also told the court that there was no problem if the state government wanted to appoint lawyers to represent it in any civil action.

“In fact, we appointed lawyers to act for us in some lawsuits. But this was the first time that we had hired lawyers to draft a contract between the state and a private company,” she said.

Deputy public prosecutor Wan Shaharudin Wan Ladin then referred Faiza to the contract’s terms and asked whether she had spotted any “silly mistakes”.

To that, she told the court she had spotted a few “typos” as well as mistakes in identifying the plots of land that would be transferred to the contractor as payment for the tunnel project.

The court previously heard that two plots of state land, costing RM208.7 million, were transferred to companies linked to the contractor, Consortium Zenith-BUCG Sdn Bhd.

“Whoever drafted this preliminary agreement should have made sure which were these plots of land because they were the subject matter,” she said, describing the terms over the land as a “big mistake”.

Faiza also testified that she had never seen the second memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Penang government and Consortium Zenith-BUCG’s holding company, Beijing Urban Construction Group, dated April 28, 2011.

Previously, another MoU was inked between the state government and BUCG on March 17, 2011.

“I had only seen the first MoU. The second MoU was shown to me during MACC’s investigations last year,” she said.

‘First and second MoU the same’

Cross-examined by lawyer Gobind Singh Deo on whether she had taken the initiative to obtain a copy of the second MoU, Faiza said she only knew about the signing “after watching the news on television”.

“I thought the second MoU was the one I had checked previously,” she said. “The second MoU was not presented at the exco (state executive council) meeting.”

However, Gobind disputed her answer, saying that “after the first MoU signing until the second signing, the excos had talked about it”.

“Lim Hock Seng (former exco member for public works, public utilities and transportation) mentioned during these meetings that BUCG representatives were working hard in preparing for the project.

“You were there and heard him talk about it. Did you give any legal opinion?” he asked.

Faiza replied that she had been told that an MOU had been signed, but she did know the details.

Gobind: Before any scheduled exco meeting, did the secretariat give out the agenda to those attending so they will have an idea what the meeting will be about?

Faiza: Yes.

Gobind: Was the second MoU attached with the agenda?

Faiza: By right, it should have been included, but I am not sure.

Faiza admitted that she could have obtained a copy of the second MoU if she had needed to, but insisted the second and first MoU were the same document.

Gobind then said that “during these meetings, the excos also spoke about appointing LHAG to draft the contract and you had no qualms about their appointment”.

“Also, you could have called (former lawyer) Adlin Abdul Majid, who was in charge, to check on the contract?”

Faiza answered in the affirmative.

Gobind suggested that Faiza’s testimony implied that she was kept in the dark and sidelined when it came to state projects, “but, in fact, you sat in at these exco meetings and were consulted”.

“I never said I was sidelined,” she replied.

Lim is standing trial on charges of using his position to ask Consortium Zenith BUCG Sdn Bhd director Zarul Ahmad Mohd Zulkifli for a 10% cut of the profits from the undersea tunnel project, and accepting RM3.3 million in kickbacks from the businessman.

He is also accused of two counts of dishonestly misappropriating RM208.7 million worth of state land to two companies.

The hearing before judge Azura Alwi continues on Nov 29.