Najib, a former Umno president, said 1MDB’s directors had approved various projects.

He said the problems in 1MDB were due to the “systemic failure on the execution of decisions at the management level”, and blamed the company’s two former CEOs, Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi and Hazem Abdul Rahman, for failing to do their jobs.

“Hazem admitted to being placed in management to carry out Jho Low’s instructions,” he said, referring to fugitive financier Low Taek Jho.

Hazem previously told the court he had been told by Low that 1MDB was set up to assist Umno in obtaining political funds. He also said he was reluctant to work in 1MDB but “could not turn down the job” offer after Najib approved his appointment as chief operating officer in 2012.

Hazem was made CEO in 2013.

Najib said Hazem was not a credible witness as he had “defiantly” kept the board of directors uninformed of funds kept with fiduciaries.

Najib also claimed that the authorities had let former chief financial officer Azmi Tahir walk free despite his failure to check the contents of documents before signing them.

“He (Azmi) admitted to being placed as a director in 1MDB’s subsidiary company on Jho Low’s instructions, yet he was allowed to get away with his misconduct scot-free either criminally or through a civil suit against him,” Najib added.

Najib is facing 25 charges of abuse of power and money laundering over alleged 1MDB funds amounting to RM2.28 billion deposited into his AmBank accounts between February 2011 and December 2014.

The hearing continues before Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah.