The High Court was told that the administration of Datuk Seri Najib Razak paid RM300,000 to a private consulting firm for two months’ worth of Chinese media monitoring services.

The Centre for Strategic Engagement (Cense) Sdn Bhd director Rita Sim testified that the firm she co-founded was hired to monitor Chinese media content for the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

Sim said the firm received instructions from the late Rompin MP, Tan Sri Jamaluddin Jarjis, who would have meetings with Cense at the PMO in Putrajaya.

“We got (payment) for two months, so the total is RM300,000,” she said.

DPP Muhammad Saifuddin: Can you explain the work you do for PMO?

Sim: We will look at the six Chinese dailies and social media, pick up the points and issues that affect the Chinese communities, summarise it daily, compile and send to the media office of the PMO.

The six dailies are Sin Chew Daily, Nanyang Siang Pau, China Press, Guang Ming Daily, Kwong Wah Yit Poh and Oriental Daily.

Sim was one of the five witnesses who took the stand in Najib’s corruption trial here yesterday.

The court was also told that Najib’s former political secretary Datuk Wong Nai Chee received a cheque for RM238,914 in February, 2015, to maintain Najib’s “Ah Jib Gor” Facebook page.

“The payment was channeled to AD Network which is in charge of running the social media page in Chinese.

“Payment was also made to Akademi Kewartawanan & Informasi Taima (Akit) for the publishing of Chinese Weekly, for news relating to Najib in Chinese,” he said.

The cheque was made to a Chinese community leader Tan Sri Lim Soon Peng who was entrusted to make the payments.

“We have a lot of writers writing objectively,” Wong said, referring to the exercise of publishing Najib’s news in Chinese.

Wong served as Najib’s political secretary from 2011 until May last year.

Before he left the courtroom, Wong stopped to shake hands with Najib who was seated in the dock.

Another witness, Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi, who owns shares in leadership consultancy company Vital Spire Sdn Bhd, said he received RM240,000 in a cheque written and signed by Najib in 2015 for the expenses of a now defunct news portal, Malaysian Digest.

Onn Hafiz, who is the nephew of Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein and great-grandson of Umno founder Datuk Onn Jaafar, took the stand as the 16th witness on the seventh day of Najib’s corruption trial here yesterday.

“Vital Spire received the cheque for the purpose of running the website malaysiandigest.com,” he said.

Onn Hafiz said Najib had given the instruction to set up the website, with intention to disseminate balanced news to the public and combat fake news.

Meanwhile, United Pasokmo-mogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko) former treasurer-general Datuk Marcus Mojigoh said he received RM1mil from Najib for the purpose of welfare programmes.

The money, which was received in 2015, was given to party branches for the use of programmes such as visiting bedridden patients,

providing eyeglasses to senior citizens and wheelchairs for the disabled.

“I received the cheque from ‘bossku’ (Najib) in his office in Putrajaya,” he said.

Umno Penang liaison executive secretary Ahmad Sahar Shuib testified that he applied for RM2mil in funding from Umno but received RM1mil.

“The money was used to pay for the staff salary and programmes to help flood victims and such,” he said.

The trial before Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali continues today.

Najib faces seven charges involving RM42mil belonging to SRC International Sdn Bhd.

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2019/04/24/rm27mil-spent-on-socia...