Received cash for seven and four years, respectively: Witness ‘Pairin and Tan involved’
Published on: Thursday, February 23, 2023
By: Jo Ann Mool
Teo said for Raymond it was Parti Gerakan, while for Pairin it was PBS.
Kota Kinabalu: The Sessions Court hearing the case of two former officials of the Sabah Water Department and one of their wives, who were charged with money laundering, heard Wednesday that two former Infrastructure Development Ministers received contributions from the centralised collection system for four and seven years, respectively.The prosecution’s 29th witness, Teo Chee Kong, said he recalled giving the contribution to Datuk Raymond Tan from the third quarter of 2005 until the end of 2009 and then to his successor Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan from 2009 until September 2016.
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Teo, in continuing to give his testimony during examination-in-chief before Judge Abu Bakar Manat, said he met the two Infrastructure Development Ministers, namely Tan and Pairin, on separate occasions for the first time together with Lim Lam Beng (third accused).
Referring to his witness statement on meeting the Ministers regarding the giving of contribution to “him and his party”, Teo explained that the party he meant was their political party.
He said for Raymond it was Parti Gerakan, while for Pairin it was PBS.
When asked by the prosecution how he could remember in detail the Infrastructure Development Ministers in his witness statement, Teo said he vividly remembered because it was his first time meeting with the Ministers and telling them about a collection contribution matter.ADVERTISEMENT.jpg)
On trial were Ag Mohd Tahir Ag Mohd Talib, 58, and Fauziah Piut, 55, who were jointly tried with Lim Lam Beng, 66, on 37 counts of money laundering charges, involving cash and bank savings amounting to RM61.57 million, as well as unlawful possession of luxury goods.
They had, on Dec 29, 2016, pleaded not guilty to the charges.
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Testifying further, Teo said during the first meeting with the Minister of Infrastructure Development, he and Lim would give the monetary contribution to the Minister who himself would distribute the contribution to the officers of the said Ministry and the Finance Ministry.
When asked about the need for the scheme to maintain rapport with the Ministry of Infrastructure Development by allocating 1.5 per cent to the scheme, Teo said it was intended for the State Water Department which is under the Ministry of Infrastructure Development that when there is a meeting about the budget at the Ministry of Finance, an official from State Water Department will be in the meeting to assist the Water Department in a question and answer session to obtain more annual maintenance allocations.
The 1.5 per cent allocation was an instruction from the State Water Department Director, said Teo.
The advantage of the scheme being established and a contribution to be given to the Ministries of Finance and Infrastructure Development was that the State Water Department could obtain more allocations for maintenance projects and emergency cases compared to before this scheme was established, said Teo.
According to Teo, the culture of giving contributions from each division had been going on for more than 10 years before he became a water engineer.
Teo said if he does not follow that culture, it will most likely make it difficult to make allocations for maintenance or small projects in each division such as making pipe repairs that will not be able to be implemented immediately.
To a question on the projects involved in the scheme, Teo said the projects were allocations from the Sabah Ministry of Finance and that the projects were for class F contractors with quotations of not more than RM150,000.
He added that the projects did not require a tender board for approval as it only required approval from Sabah State Water Department’s quotation committee.
Teo said the projects involved in the scheme were more to maintain projects and did not involve new projects worth millions of ringgit.
To another question on names such as Michael Wong and Datuk Tony in his witness statement, Teo said Michael’s real name was Wong Ket Vui and Michael Wong was his glamour name, and that as far as he knew, Wong was a proxy for the Sabah Water Department Director Ag Mohd Tahir Mohd Talib, while Tony was his older brother by the name of Teo Chit Ming.
Teo said Wong will go to other divisions, especially his place and other divisions, to discuss with the Divisional Water Engineer that he can help them to get a big allocation if part of 50 per cent of the allocation obtained through him, will be given to him.
Asked why the Water Department-friendly contractors agreed to join the scheme and make a contribution of 10.75 per cent from the project’s quotation, Teo said he had explained to them that they will not lose anything, even if they contribute 10.75 per cent to the scheme because they already have a scheduled rate prepared.
“All the costs have been “inflated” to cover this 10.75 per cent cost and I promised them that they will not lose in doing this work or it is a win-win situation for both parties,” he said.
To an additional question on the “Schedule Rate”, Teo recalled that the Schedule Rate had been prepared three times for the scheme from 2005 to 2016, namely in 2005, 2008 and 2014, which were all approved by Ag Mohd Tahir.
He said the three changes were due to an increase in material prices and construction costs.
“In order for us to go through this scheme with a win-win situation, we have to raise the price. In 2014, there was also a price increase,” said Teo.
To another question on how could he remember the meeting with the divisional engineers on April 6, 2005, Teo remembered it as it was the first meeting when he informed them about the scheme.
On a question about a 0.25 per cent to the District Engineers Pool Money in the scheme, Teo said in the scheme, the money was for social activities at the State Water Department for the entire State, including sports activities such as the Director’s Cup Games, celebrations such as Chinese New Year, Hari Raya and also trips to overseas for the department’s engineers and also the staff.
When asked about Lim Lam Beng’s role in the establishment of the said scheme from 2005 until he retired, Teo said Lim was the person who informed him about the scheme that had been decided and agreed upon by Water Department Director Ag Mohd Tahir.
Teo said Lim also brought him to see Ministers such as Datuk Raymond Tan and Tan Sri Pairin, permanent secretary and deputy permanent secretary to tell them about the existence of the scheme.
Asked how he handed over the contribution money of 1.5 per cent to Lim, Teo said it was more or less the way he handed over the money to Ag Mohd Tahir.
Teo said after he would put the money inside a courier bag and marked outside the bag as “TPJA” (Water Department Deputy Director) and that he would call or send Lim an SMS to know his location.
“I used to hand it over to him at his office, at his house, at my house and that the amount of each delivery was between RM80,000 to RM200,000,” said Teo, adding he never failed to deliver Lim’s part from 2005 until he retired.
To another question, Teo said if the division water engineers transferred or retired, he would inform the new engineers about the scheme that was created in April 2005 and likewise if the same happened to the Permanent Secretary and the Minister, Lim and him would inform them about the said contribution scheme.
Deputy Public Prosecutors Mahadi Abdul Jumaat, Haresh Prakash Somiah and Zander Lim appeared for the prosecution.
Ag Mohd Tahir and Fauziah were represented by counsel Priskila Akwila Sinem and Mohamed Fareeez Mohamed Salleh, while Lim was represented by counsel Datuk Tan Hock Chuan, Baldev Singh and Kelvin Wong.
Counsel Ram Singh held a watching brief for Teo.
Trial continues.
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