Hishammuddin gave approval to UKSB to implement visa facilitation service for seven years — Witness
SHAH ALAM: The High Court here was told yesterday that former Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein had granted the approval for Ultra Kirana Sdn Bhd’s (UKSB) application to implement the Visa Application Management System (SPPV) 1 Stop Centre in China for a concession period of seven years.
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 (Immigration Affairs) to prepare a Consideration Paper to obtain the approval of the then Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin regarding UKSB’s application to implement the SPPV 1 Stop Centre in the Republic of 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 Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s corruption trial in connection with the Foreign Visa System (VLN) here.
Djuliana said UKSB submi ed the proposal offering the visa facilitation service in China to the ministry in 2010.
“UKSB submi ed the proposal through a le er 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 application in a comprehensive and safe manner without jeopardising any approval process.
“In the le er, UKSB also said that the service would not involve any cost to the Malaysian Government as all service infrastructure will be fully prepared by the company,” she said.
The prosecution’s 11th witness said Hishammuddin also minuted the top part of the le er with words that read: ‘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 done for India - this one for China)
“Following the minister’s minutes, the proposal was scrutinised by the Immigration Department before being submi ed to the KDN 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, told the court that former Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had extended UKSB’s contract for the VLN project even though the existing contract still had three years le to go.
Ahmad Zahid had served as Home Minister between 2013 and 2018.
Ahmad Zahid, 68, is facing 33 charges of receiving bribes worth SG$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 commi ing the offences at Seri Satria, Presint 16, Putrajaya and at Country Heights, Kajang between October 2014 and March 2018.
For another seven charges, Ahmad Zahid is charged as Home Minister with accepting SG$1,150,000, RM3,000,000, EUR15,000 (RM75,663) and US$15,000 (RM62,115) in cash from the same company which he knew had a connection with his function as then home minister.
The hearing before Judge Mohd Yazid Mustafa continues today.