They were also advised to avoid mentioning Najib and Low Taek Jho at the proceedings.
Bakke said Najib called him two weeks before he was scheduled to appear before the PAC on Feb 11, 2016, and asked him to meet then PAC chairman Hasan Arifin and former Media Prima Bhd CEO Ahmad Farid Ridzuan at Farid’s house.
“I asked him why, and he explained that he wanted to make sure the answers we (1MDB officials) would give to the PAC would be in ‘harmony’,” he said under re-examination by ad hoc prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram.
Bakke told the court that he informed Najib it would be better “if I am not called to the PAC”.
“He told me that ‘it’s too late, you still have to appear’,” he said.
It was previously reported that Bakke, his predecessor Che Lodin Wok Kamaruddin, as well as former 1MDB CEOs Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi and Arul Kanda Kandasamy had testified before the bipartisan committee between 2015 and 2016.
Sri Ram: What were the common things you had to say and what did you have to avoid?
Bakke: The thing that we should say was that “all the irregularities and shenanigans happened because of the oversight of 1MDB’s management staff”, and thing we had to avoid was making reference to the prime minister and Jho Low (fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho).
The prosecution then asked Bakke why he did not lodge a complaint about 1MDB’s financial irregularities to the Minister of Finance (Incorporated), to which he said filing a complaint was akin to “complaining” about the prime minister.
“Looking at it entirely, I should have done that and stuck my neck out, regardless of whether it was the prime minister or not,” he said.
He also told the court he had met Najib many times regarding other matters after he resigned in October 2009.
However, he said Najib had never asked him why he had resigned.
1MDB’s ‘work in silo’ culture
Earlier, during cross-examination by Shafee Abdullah on whether the witness had heard of the purported “work in silo” culture at 1MDB, Bakke said he only came to know about it when Najib’s trial was reported in the media.
Shafee said the term was used by several other witnesses, namely Shahrol, his predecessor Hazem Abdul Rahman, as well as former chief financial officer Azmi Tahir, in their testimonies where they claimed the “work in silo” mandate came from Jho Low.
He asked Bakke if he had taken “an easy way out” by resigning in October 2009, instead of resolving the company’s financial issues.
“I disagree,” Bakke said.
Shafee then pressed Bakke on his impression that Jho Low was Najib’s representative in 1MDB, saying there was no evidence to show that Jho Low was indeed Najib’s representative.
Shafee: Isn’t it possible you formed an impression that may not carry the true picture?
Bakke: I disagree.
Najib is standing trial on 25 charges of abuse of power and money laundering over funds amounting to RM2.28 billion which were deposited into his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014.
The hearing before judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah will continue on June 7.