PUTRAJAYA: A former Cabinet member told the High Court that Datuk Seri Najib Razak could not have been behind the idea to federalise the Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA) due to a four-month delay in the preparation of a memorandum on the matter.
Former entrepreneur development and cooperatives minister Tan Sri Noh Omar, 67, who was under an examination-in-chief by Najib's lead counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, said that it took four months for the Finance Ministry to prepare the memorandum on the federalisation of TIA after a Cabinet approval was obtained.
The witness was referred to a Cabinet meeting minute dated Dec 12, 2008, where the then prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had broached the subject of TIA, which the witness said was an idea by the then Yang di-Pertuan Agong.
Najib, at that time, was the finance minister and deputy prime minister in Abdullah's administration.
"Usually, if it was an order by the Cabinet, it (memorandum) would have been quicker," Noh said on Wednesday (March 26).
Muhammad Shafee: If Najib really had interest in TIA, how long would it have been (for the memorandum to be issued)?
Noh: I think it would have been a month. You don't have to wait four months. Obviously, he would want to prepare it (sooner). To me, this is a matter outside of the Finance Ministry to have this memorandum done.
Muhammad Shafee: Whose inspiration was it to set up TIA?
Noh: Based on the minute, it came from the Sultan of Terengganu at that time.
Muhammad Shafee: This would have been beneficial to Terengganu's economy?
Noh: Yes.
Najib, in his testimony, had said that the idea of federalising TIA was raised after its then chief executive officer Datuk Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi wrote to him and former second finance minister Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop on May 25, 2009, highlighting internal conflicts between TIA’s management and Mentri Besar Terengganu Incorporated (MBTI).
In the letter, Shahrol Azral proposed transforming TIA into 1MDB, modelled after Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund Mubadala.
TIA officially became 1MDB on Sept 25, 2009.
On Oct 30, last year, Najib was ordered by the High Court to enter his defence on four counts of using his position to obtain RM2.28bil gratification from 1MDB's funds and 21 counts of money laundering involving the same amount.
The hearing continues before Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah tomorrow (March 27).
