‘I was rounding off the figure’ — Zahid’s ex-secretary’s explanation for paying RM150,000 to settle RM131,000 bill

KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 29): Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s (pictured) former executive secretary admitted in court yesterday that there were instances where she was negligent in using cheques from his charitable organisation Yayasan Akalbudi to pay for his personal credit card bills.

Major Mazlina Mazlan, who is a key witness in the Umno president’s corruption trial, admitted that on a few occasions, she had made a mistake of overpaying his bills and even getting the dates wrong when issuing a cheque.

Mazlina, who was cross-examined by Zahid’s lawyer Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Zainal, was made to account for the numerous cheques she had written using Yayasan Akalbudi’s funds to pay for the bills. 

Zaidi referred to one credit card statement in December 2013 where the amount owed to the bank was RM65,153.32 but an amount of RM71,283.17 was paid via two cheques for RM63,701.52 and RM7,581.65.

Mazlina admitted to the lawyer that she had made the mistake of overpaying.

Another instance was on Aug 26, when she wrote a cheque for RM150,000 to pay off Zahid’s AmIslamic bank credit card which was only RM131,551.64.

She was asked by the lawyer as to why she had overpaid by so much, and her response was that she was rounding off the figure.

Zaidi: RM131,000 you rounded off to RM150,000? People usually round off to RM132,000. Is this your mistake?

Mazlina: I overlooked this. It was my mistake.

She also admitted that there were occasions where she never showed credit card statements and cheques to Zahid, before paying them.

Zaidi: In the witness statement, you did say that Datuk Seri Zahid is a meticulous person. If he is meticulous, he would not allow the excess payment.

Mazlina: Disagree.

Zaidi: You never showed the credit card statements and cheques for the payment to Datuk Seri Zahid.

Mazlina: Yes.

Mazlina also admitted to getting the date wrong for a credit card payment which was due after Jan 28, 2014. The cheque for the amount, however, was dated before the credit card statement on Jan 7.

Mazlina: I mistyped the date on the cheque, the payment should have been 7 February instead of 7 January.

Blanket approval for Zahid’s rubberstamp signature

The witness said she had assumed that the former deputy prime minister had given her a blanket approval to use a rubberstamp of his signature to sign off on cheques, when he was away or busy at meetings.

She had previously testified that this was used to avoid late payment to the banks when Zahid was not available.

Zaidi had put to the witness that Zahid at any time had never given her approval to use the rubberstamp on Yayasan Akalbudi cheques to pay off his credit card. However, the witness disagreed with the suggestion.

Although agreeing that the stamp was used for certificates or invitation letters, Mazlina insisted Zahid had approved the use of the stamp for the cheques.

Mazlina said Zahid’s instructions were clear and she presumed it was a blanket approval by the Umno president for the stamp to be used on any cheque.

Zaidi: So you presumed it is a blanket approval?

Mazlina: Yes.

Zaidi: And that is your presumption?

Mazlina: Yes.

Mazlina, who gave mostly monosyllabic answers in proceedings today, explained briefly that she was not aware that Yayasan Akalbudi Foundation had never made any ‘special resolution’ or given a stamp specimen to Affin Bank for use on behalf of the foundation.

On Tuesday, Mazlina told the court that Zahid gave her the permission to use the stamp with his signature on Yayasan Akalbudi’s cheques for payments of his credit cards in 2014.

Zahid, 67, is facing 47 charges, with 12 of them involving criminal breach of trust, eight for corruption and 27 for money laundering involving tens of millions of ringgit in funds belonging to Yayasan Akalbudi.

The prosecution is led by deputy public prosecutor Datuk Raja Rozela Raja Toran, while the defence team is led by lawyer Hisyam Teh Poh Teik.

Hearing before Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues.

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