Heated Argument Marks Ex-Minister's 2nd Week Hearing
By Ignatius Stephen

Bandar Seri Begawan – Heated words were exchanged in court between the Chief Justice and the leading defence counsel during a current high profile corruption case where a Brunei ex minister and a prominent contractor face charges involving millions of dollars.

The corruption trial is against Pengiran Indera Wijaya Pg Dr Haji Ismail bin Pg Hj Damit the former Development Minister, and Wong Kim Tai, his alleged accomplice, which has gone into its second week with the continued cross examination of the first witness for the prosecution, Haji Jumin bin Hj Marsal.

Haji Jumin, who is currently the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Development, began giving his evidence on 17 February this year.

He said that he joined the Civil Service in 1977 as an engineer with the Public Works Department (PWD) and was promoted to PWD’s Director of Development Department in August 1993.

The Development Department had three sections at that time.

One section was responsible in implementing projects for the Land and Housing Scheme for the Indigenous Citizens (Bahagian Skim Tanah Kurnia dan Perumahan Rakyat Jati).

Between 1993 and 1994, there were two housing projects implemented involving Kampong Tungku Phase III and Kampong Lambak Kiri.

Hj Jumin stated that the PWD would prepare the designs for these projects.

The planning, technical specifications, costs and estimates of the projects were determined by the Project Engineers of the PWD.

Tender documents would then be prepared. Upon completion of these, the work to date would be referred to him as Director of Development of the PWD and then to the Director General of the PWD.

Tenders would then be advertised in the Pelita Brunei and tenders would be received at the Tender board.

Upon opening the tenders, the tenders would be sent to the PWD for evaluation of prices, specification and compliance to the tender requirements.

Recommendation for Government Projects would be sent directly to the Tender Board and not to the Minister of Development.

Funding for Government Project would be as budgeted under the National Development Plan and the Annual Budget of the PWD.

There are projects under the supervision of the Istana Project Supervisor (IPS).

Pg Dr Ismail was the IPS head at that time.

Hj Jumin did not know where the funding for IPS projects come from.

Tenders for IPS projects were subject to the instruction of the IPS whether it would be by way of open tenders, which are tenders open to any willing participant or by way of selected tender, where a selected group of tenderers believed to be qualified to do the project would be invited to tender.

The relevant project engineers would evaluate the tenders received in IPS tenders and submit their recommendation to the Minister of Development as the IPS.

The Kampong Tungku Project Phase III was divided into 4 packages.

Ted Sdn Bhd where the 2nd Defendant Wong Kim Tai was the Managing Director was given packages I and III whilst Galfar Sdn Bhd got packages II and IV.

Hj Jumin then went on to explain that generally variation orders for any given project should not exceed 10 per cent of the project sum.

Heads of Department has authority to approve variation order of less than $25,000.00.

The Minister of Development has authority to approve variation order of less than $150,000.00 whilst variation orders of $150,000.00 or more need the consent of His Majesty the Sultan.

The defence opened its cross examination of Hj Jumin on February 19 with Christopher Fernando cross examining on behalf of Pg Dr Ismail.

Hj Jumin agreed with Mr Christopher Fernando leading the defence team that sometime after the Independence day of Brunei, His Majesty the Sultan had pledged his generosity to provide land and housing to indigenous people of the country.

Hj Jumin agreed that there was pressure from the applicants to build houses, which are of good quality and to build them fast.

Mr Fernando questioned Hj Jumin whether he would agree that "If we were to apply the two criteria of speed and good workmanship to build these houses, Ted Sdn Bhd would be an obvious choice".

Hj Jumin agreed to this suggestion but added that there were other contractors who were as good as Ted Sdn Bhd.

Mr Fernando then asked Hj Jumin whether it is true that the IPS would take direction and discuss matters with His Majesty or Prince Jefri, who was then the Minister of Finance, for any particular IPS project undertaken.

To that Hj Jumin said that he would not know as he was an implementer of the projects receiving his instructions from the Minister of Development, who was then the IPS.

Hj Jumin said that the Financial Regulations would have to be abided by otherwise the Treasury would refuse to make payment.

However, His Majesty can waive the Financial Regulation in any particular case.

To repeated questionings by Christopher Fernando, Hj Jumin maintained that he did not know whether the IPS projects had been privately funded.

Christopher Fernando continued the cross examination of Hj Jumin on February 21.

On February 22 when Hj Jumin was repeatedly asked the same question by Christopher Fernando, the Chief Justice interjected:

"The witness had answered your question twice, move on to other matters".

Christopher Fernando then asked permission from the Chief Justice to ask his next question. To that the Chief Justice gave Mr Fernando terse remark:

"Mr Fernando, you do not have to ask me permission for every question you wish to put to the witness. If you do so then we will be here forever. You can ask any question on behalf of your client within the bounds of the law and the rules. But if you go beyond theses boundaries or asked questions repeatedly when it had been answered, then you will be stopped

I am not saying anything new here, I am sure the position is the same in the courts that you practised in".

Christopher Fernando then in his further questioning of Hj Jumin suggested that the Government did not pay for the Tungku Project.

To that Andrew McRae, SC for the prosecution objected stating that this question was predicated on false premise and further it is the same question that was disallowed but asked in a different form.

Christopher Fernando in his response to this short objection went on a lengthy discourse, which included asking the Chief Justice to rule on the propriety of the contracts entered by the Government.

To that the Chief Justice said:

"Speech by the Learned Counsel is a speech that should be made at the end of trial. I respectfully decline the invitation by Learned Counsel to rule on the construction of the contract at this stage.

Wordings in the contract are something that can be relied on at the end of trial. It is premature for me to comment on it at this stage.

The witness had answered and answered the counsel repeatedly. The objection by the prosecution is allowed and Mr Fernando should move on".

After continuing with the cross examination of Hj Jumin, Christopher Fernando then passed on the cross examining of this witness to his co counsel Roy Prabhakaran.

The trial continues.

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