Former chief executive officer (CEO) of SRC International Sdn Bhd Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil has tendency to lie, misrepresent facts and figures, and manipulate company’s accounts and financial statements.
These negative attributes of Nik Faisal have led to SRC’s former chairman and director Tan Sri Ismee Ismail to quit his positions in the company, the Kuala Lumpur High Court heard today, Monday, June 10, 2019.
Ismee told the court that he officially resigned from SRC International on August 15, 2014 over his disagreement with Nik Faisal’s management style.
“I resigned from my positions because I did not agree with the company’s management style operated by CEO Nik Faisal, especially in relations to the company’s finances and accounts,” he testified before presiding Judge Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali.
The 54-year-old corporate man was testifying as the prosecution’s 39th witness during the hearing of former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s corruption trial.
Najib, also the former Finance Minister 1, currently faces 7 charges of abuse of power, criminal breach of trust and money-laundering pertaining to an alleged misappropriation of funds belonging to SRC International.
Ismee, also a former non-executive director of 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), cited an example where Nik Faisal misrepresented facts and figures when filing certain critical financial statements.
“Nik Faisal handles most actions involving SRC,” he said.
“He would table any working paper to the board of directors for approval and would solely coordinate all follow-up actions on each project that SRC planned to implement.”
Earlier, the trial’s 38th witness Datuk Azian Mohd Noh told the court that Retirement Fund Incorporated (KWAP) never did any independent verification on SRC’s two separate loan applications before approving them.
However, the former KWAP CEO said the government link company (GLC) was not required by its internal procedures to carry out such verification anyway.
When questioned by the defence on whether Najib exerted any pressure to secure the loans for SRC, she said that even if there was certain amount of influence, it was only to facilitate the approval process of the loan.
She said even that influence was a perceived, not actual, influence.
“Ultimately any decision would not have been made in breach of any law or act,” said Azian on KWAP’s decision to approve SRC’s loan applications.
SRC International had submitted its application on June 3, 2011 to Najib seeking for a loan of RM3.95 billion.
Najib minuted his agreement on June 5, 2011 before forwarding it to KWAP for consideration.
After much discussion, several investment papers drafted and SRC secured a government guarantee, KWAP agreed to give the first loan of RM2 billion on Aug 26, 2011 after an agreement was signed.
SRC also sought another additional RM2 billion loan from KWAP, which was also supported by Najib.
The application was approved on March 27, 2012, when the facility agreement and government guarantee was signed.
SRC International, a subsidiary under 1MDB then, had sought the loan then to facilitate its imminent investments into alternate energy resources sector.
KWAP’s total RM4 billion loan to SRC was still in effect and had not been terminated.
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