Perwaja paid NKK, says ex-director

KUALA LUMPUR: Perwaja Rolling Mill and Development Sdn Bhd had paid ¥5mil (RM183,099) to NKK Corporation, Japan, for its services to select bidders to construct the beam and section mill in Gurun, Kedah, the Sessions Court here heard yesterday. 

Former Perwaja Terengganu Sdn Bhd director Datuk Zubir Embong, who was shown the July 1992 memorandum of understanding (MOU), agreed that the sum was paid to NKK Corporation.  

Asked by defence counsel Datuk Muhammad Shafee Abdullah whether he had seen that MOU, Zubir said: “I have never seen the MOU but if I am not mistaken, Tan Sri (Eric Chia Eng Hock) had mentioned it in his briefing about negotiations with NKK Corporation.”  

Zubir agreed that the board of directors, through a resolution, did not limit the usage of the US$196mil (RM745mil) loan.  

He also agreed with the contention that assuming the three phases of the technical assistance agreements were genuine they would be regarded as services for the construction of the beam and section mill. 

Zubir, 50, was testifying as a prosecution witness at the trial of former Perwaja Steel managing director Chia, 71, who is charged with misappropriating RM76.4mil from Perwaja Rolling Mill and Development Sdn Bhd on Feb 19, 1994. 

Chia faces an alternative charge of dishonestly disposing of the company’s funds by entering into an agreement with NKK Corporation and authorising the RM76.4mil be paid to the account of Frilsham Enterprise Incorporated with the American Express Bank Limited, Hong Kong, without the approval of the board of directors of Perwaja Rolling Mill and Development or its tender committee. 

Hearing continues on Dec 7.