‘Govt guarantees normally take months to be issued’
KUALA LUMPUR: Former Treasury secretary-general Tan Sri Dr Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah yesterday said government loan guarantees usually took months to be issued.
He said it was never done within several days, and companies seeking government guarantees normally had to wait between one and three months.
Even the quickest, he said, took one month to be approved.
Irwan’s answer seems to have strengthened the prosecution’s argument that two government guarantees issued for SRC International Sdn Bhd to obtain a RM4 billion loan from the Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP) had been rushed.
Witnesses had testified that they were forced to rush everything connected to the RM4 billion loan application, even though SRC International did not provide them with adequate information or working papers on the loans.
Irwan, who was Treasury secretary-general from August 2012 to May 2018, said he was not involved in SRC International’s application, but said he signed a memorandum connected to the matter as his then boss was not around. the time the two government guarantees were issued, Irwan was the deputy secretary-general under Tan Sri Wan Abdul Aziz Wan Abdullah.
Asked by defence counsel Farhan Read he had been pressured to sign the memorandum, Irwan replied in the negative.
“My officers cannot pressure me, you know…,” he said.
Irwan kept maintaining that he could not answer many of the questions posed concerning SRC International’s loan application as he was not directly involved in it.
He was on the witness stand less than three hours and was not cross-examined by the prosecution after completing his testimony.
The trial before High Court judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali resumes on Monday.
Najib, 66, is accused of criminal breach of trust, money laundering, and abuse of power involving RM42 million of SRC International funds.
He faces up to 20 years’ jail if convicted.