KUALA LUMPUR (July 7): About five months prior to his alleged attempt to leak classified company information, then-Petroliam Nasional Bhd (PETRONAS) employee Mohd Khairul Akmal Jasni had applied for a job with Petroleum Sarawak Bhd (Petros), a witness told the High Court on Tuesday.
Testifying as the third witness in the ongoing criminal case against Mohd Khairul, Petros' human resource analyst Nurul Qurratu Aini Laila Junaidi said that the accused eventually never took up the offered post as his salary expectations were not met.
She said that Mohd Khairul had applied for the position of Head, Upstream Finance, on Jan 24, 2024, and was offered the post of Head, Finance (Gas Aggregator & SRM) on March 27, 2024, with a monthly salary of RM25,000. However, Mohd Khairul had demanded a salary of RM37,000 based on his industry experience.
"Petros couldn't fulfil that request and maintained its initial offer. Following his rejection, Petros made no further offers," she said.
She also testified that there was nothing untoward about Mohd Khairul's application process as it followed the usual route: application through company website, followed by a panel interview.
Nurul Qurratu, 39, also testified that the accused had never replied to the email with Petros’ initial offer.
Mohd Khairul, who was the Business Performance Unit manager at PETRONAS at the material time, is accused of attempting to leak a document to Petros, from Marc Service Residence, Jalan Pinang, between 3.19pm and 3.21pm on June 8, 2024.
He is charged under Section 203A(1), read together with Section 511 of the Penal Code, for attempting to reveal information during official duty. If found guilty, he is liable to imprisonment of up to one year, a fine of not more than RM1 million, or both.
He was sacked by PETRONAS on Dec 20, 2024.
On Tuesday, the witness testified that Mohd Azha Abdul Jalil, who is currently the Petros chief financial officer, and Datuk Abang Arabi Abang Narudin, who is the company's senior vice-president for Sarawak Resource Management, had conducted the two-member panel interview.
She also confirmed the work emails of Mohd Azha and group chief executive officer Datuk Janin Girie.
The court had heard testimonies previously that Mohd Khairul had attempted to send a confidential document titled “Q1 2024 Upstream Business Performance” through his work email to Mohd Azha and Janin's work emails.
During cross-examination by defence counsel Louis Liaw from Louis Liaw Chambers, Nurul Qurratu said that negotiations over the offer ended around April 2024.
Liaw: There were no active negotiations in June 2024?
Nurul Qurratu: Based on what I know, there was none.
Deputy public prosecutor Noor Syafina Mohamad Radzuan is prosecuting the case.
The trial before Sessions Court judge Mazuliana Abdul Rashid continues on Wednesday.
PETRONAS and Petros are currently embroiled in a battle over the control of the oil and gas industry in Sarawak, following Petros’ formation in 2017 which culminated in an ongoing dispute that has entered the Federal Court.