Former assistant secretary in the immigration affairs division of the home ministry (KDN) Djuliana Jamaludin said Hishammuddin granted the approval for UKSB’s application on Oct 1, 2011.
“I was instructed by my division to prepare a ‘consideration paper’ to obtain the approval of the then home minister (Hishammuddin), regarding UKSB’s application to implement the SPPV 1 Stop Centre in China using the private finance initiative (PFI) model for a concession period of seven years.
“The ‘consideration paper’ dated Sept 28, 2011, recommended several actions to be taken by the government,” she said in her testimony in Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s corruption trial in connection with the Foreign Visa System (VLN) here today.
Djuliana said UKSB submitted the proposal offering the visa facilitation service in China to the ministry in 2010.
“UKSB submitted the proposal through a letter to the then home minister (Hishammuddin) dated March 4, 2010, which among others, stated that the visa facilitation service could assist the Malaysian embassy in China to manage visa applications in a comprehensive and safe manner without jeopardising any approval process.
“In the letter, UKSB also said the service would not involve any cost to the Malaysian government as all service infrastructure would be fully prepared by the company,” she said.
The prosecution’s 11th witness said Hishammuddin also made a note at the top part of the letter with the words: “Datuk Seri KSU/ Datuk Alias sila teliti seperti yang dilakukan untuk India — yang ini untuk China” (“Datuk Seri KSU/Datuk Alias, please scrutinise this as was done for India — this one is for China).
“Following the minister’s note, the proposal was scrutinised by the immigration department before being submitted to the home ministry for further action,” he said.
Prior to this, the prosecution’s third witness, Siti Jalilah Abd Manap, who is former deputy secretary of the immigration affairs division, had told the court that Zahid, who was the former deputy prime minister, had extended UKSB’s contract for the VLN project even though the existing contract still had three years left to go.
Zahid had served as home minister between 2013 and 2018.
Zahid, 68, is facing 33 charges of receiving bribes worth S$13.56 million from UKSB as an inducement for himself, as a public official, a home minister, to extend the company’s contract as the operator of the one-stop centre (OSC) service in China and the VLN system as well as maintaining the agreement contract to supply the integrated VLN system by the same company to the home ministry.
He is charged with committing the offences at Seri Satria, Presint 16, Putrajaya, and at Country Heights, Kajang, between October 2014 and March 2018.
For another seven charges, Zahid is charged with accepting S$1,150,000, RM3,000,000, 15,000 euros and US$15,000 in cash from the same company, which he knew had a connection with his position as then home minister.
The hearing before Judge Yazid Mustafa continues tomorrow.